


The Sprout and the Bean

by RebelPaisley



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Adult Language, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Aphrodisiacs, Auradon politics, Beast Ben, Blackmail, Bondage, Bonding, Break Up, Comedy, Communication Issues, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Dating, Dubious Consent, Emotional Compromise, Except the Duke, F/M, Found Family, Healthy family dynamics, Humiliation, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Insecurity, Love Confessions, Low Self-Esteem, M/M, Magic Mishaps, Magic Users are Salty, Magically Increased Stamina, Mpreg, Multi, Nervous Chad, No Beta we die like vikings, Oblivious Humans - Freeform, Open Relationship kind of, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Plant sex, Polyamory, Post-Descendants (2015), Post-Descendants 3, Pregnancy Struggles (Mal), Rape/Non-con Elements, Referenced Isolation, Referenced Neglect, Romance, Self-Loathing, Sexual Situations, Slash, Slime, Tentacles, The James’ are Oblivious humans, Time Skips, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, breakdown - Freeform, coming into one's own, coverups, date crashing, internalized slutshaming, interruptions, magic ban, magical plants, not King Adam friendly, oblivious Ben, proposal, public intoxication, reconnecting, referenced abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:08:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 57,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29440224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebelPaisley/pseuds/RebelPaisley
Summary: A fieldtrip to Neverland goes awry when Jay and Chad have a tangle with magical vegetation.  What should end as an embarrassing and mildly traumatizing event never to be spoken of again somehow paves the way for something greater.  Cue an emergency meeting with Fairy Godmother, and suddenly Chad was on a magical quest to the Outerlands to train to be a wizard, which was definitely not a cover up for something else.  After all, it is rare but totally reasonable for the fates to give Chad a child upon the completion of his made up quest.  Obviously.Also known as – The life and trials of Chadwick James, the single dad and master wizard-to-be, mover and shaker of the political world who doesn’t really have time for love, but if he could manage it, well… that would be pretty great, he supposed.Also, also known as – The Mpreg where the Mpreg is the least important part.  Like, it’s half a chapter at most, for real.
Relationships: Ben/Chad Charming, Ben/Chad Charming/Mal/Jay, Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Chad Charming/Harry Hook, Chad Charming/Jay
Comments: 52
Kudos: 63





	1. A Series of Unlikely Events

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING – Non-con – The first scene features an assault carried out by a magical plant, please see endnotes for more details. 
> 
> GENERAL WARNING – While this first chapter features some heavy stuff, the rest of the story is not nearly as intense. It will have its moments, but overall, the hardest hitters take place in this first chapter. 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious consent – In scene two there is an intimate situation that features dubious consent, mostly due to a complete lack of communication by both partners. See endnotes for more details. 
> 
> WARNING – Referenced Alcoholism – Normally I wouldn’t put up a warning for something that is referenced, but Chad gets a little bleak about it in scene 3 (very briefly), so I thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. See endnotes for more details.

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad hissed, pushing through the Neverland underbrush as though it had personally offended him, eyes squinting against the oppressive gloom that was slightly mitigated by the faint glow of lightning bugs flitting through the tress. “Jay, you shit. Come back.”

Chad could think of better ways to spend the last night of their school fieldtrip than stomping through unmarked jungles in desperate search of a wayward idiot, and yet here he was. It had been inevitable, perhaps, because Jay’s thirst for adventure and discovery was known even to Chad, who he only spoke with peripherally, and Jay had been growing objectively more antsy with each passing day of their very detailed, organized, and structured fieldtrip for their History of Mystical Studies class. 

Magic may be banned in Auradon, but Fairy Godmother felt it was important that the students of Auradon Prep understand how it shaped their kingdoms into what they were today. That was why they were in Neverland in the first place, learning from mermaids and communing with fairies and taking detailed notes if they were anyone but Jay, who spent most of _his_ time gazing longingly at the woods that had been definitely and repeated labeled as _restricted_.

Of course Jay had taken that as a challenge. Of course Jay had managed to restrain himself until the night before they left, and it wasn’t like Chad had been watching for him, exactly, he just had the unfortunate tendency to be aware of Jay no matter how hard he tried not to be. It was a gift he didn’t want, a gift he adamantly tried to ignore, and yet when he caught the son of Jafar sneaking into the wilderness from the window of the cabin Chad was sharing with Ben, Chad knew he had to act immediately. 

Aside from breaking the very strict _do not wander_ rule, Jay was also violating their curfew, and while those might seem like petty crimes compared to some of the things Jay had done before, both of those things provided sufficient grounds to revoke Jay’s probation and send him back to the Isle. Chad would know, he made a dedicated effort to memorize every applicable rule in any given situation just to ensure he didn’t violate them. He had a desperate need for structure that he genuinely self-enforced, because if Chad was following the rules he was probably good, and if he was good maybe his dad would talk to him again. Like, he certainly wouldn’t if Chad was _bad_ , at any rate, so Chad found it was always best to play it safe. And maybe that had resulted in him conforming to the majority more often than he would like to, but Chad just- he really needed their validation. 

He knew it was pathetic. He knew it was sad. But he needed the masses to think he was charming because he wasn’t going to get that kind of attention anywhere else, and he was just a weak human at the end of the day. A struggling, weak human.

And now he was a weak human chasing Jay through the woods, wishing that he’d brought his flashlight and hoping he could recover the dumb oaf before anyone realized they were missing. 

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad hissed again, trying to keep his voice low as he searched for shadowy glimpses of his sort-of acquaintance. “Stop running, you asshole. They’re going to do a headcount.”

“What?” For whatever reason that made Jay materialize from the gloom, the other teen staring down at Chad from atop a definite peak in the path he was forging. “Why are you following me?”

“Because they’re going to do a _headcount_ ,” Chad repeated, trying not to huff his way up to the Agraben, trying to play it cool even though Jay already thought he was an idiot. “In an hour they’re going to go around and make sure everyone is in their room, and if you’re not there for a good reason, the touchier nobility of Auradon could use it as an excuse to boot you back to the Isle.”

“They could?” Jay asked, and Chad could actually see him processing this, the schmuck. “You’re just fucking with me, aren’t you? You wouldn’t give a shit if I was sent back or not.”

“I am not an entire asshole,” Chad shot back, even though that was sort of a lie. Chad was pretty sure he was a terrible person, and all his dedication to rules was an effort to stave of the inevitable. “Look, just give this up, man. You don’t know what you’re messing with here anyway. So much of Neverland hasn’t been explored-”

“ _Exactly_ ,” Jay pressed, his voice filled with determination. “How can you expect me to stay in that dumb cabin when there’s a whole jungle to search?”

“Quite easily,” Chad snapped. “That is a very easy expectation that literally _everyone else_ is fulfilling. Would you just get over yourself and come back?” 

“You just don’t want me to get credited with discovering something,” Jay decided with a sniff. “You want everyone to be as unremarkable as you.”

“What?” Chad was pretty sure, according to a lot of people – just like, the grand majority – he was pretty remarkable. “Fuck you, Jay. I’m trying to do you a favor.”

“Well, save it _,_ ” Jay said with all the confidence of someone who was onto Chad’s uncertainty, his lingering fear that without his title of prince he wasn’t actually special in any capacity, and that his looks and his skill in Tourney and Swords and Shields and Equestrian training and trendsetting actually meant nothing. “I’m not leaving until I actually get to explore this place – not go on super-guided nature walks and look at distant research facilities or whatever. I’m gonna see something.”

“You’re gonna get caught breaking curfew,” Chad snapped, giving up and making a hasty swipe for Jay’s wrist. “ _We’re_ gonna get caught, but I’ll just get a slap on the wrist while you get sent back to the Isle, and what do you think Mal will do then?”

“Leave Mal out of it,” Jay hissed, yanking his wrist back. “You don’t know a thing about friendship because you don’t have any actual friends.”

“Fuck off, Jay.” Chad tried to actually pull him this time, back down the slope they’d come from, but Jay was like a stone wall – immoveable.

“You just have people who gather around you and tell you what you want to hear,” Jay pressed, getting more invested in their minor tug of war. “People to coo over you, but if you were ever sick or scared, they sure as shit wouldn’t comfort you. I mean, do you think Audrey would ever lift you up if you were sad? Do you even _get_ sad? Is that a thing you’re capable of?”

“You’re such an asshole,” Chad pressed, struggling to maintain his footing. “I don’t know why anyone likes you-”

“Because I’m _real_ ,” Jay pressed, emphasizing his point with one last tug. 

In the heat of the moment he must have used more force than intended because it sent Chad slamming into his chest, which was a place the blond didn’t get to panic over being because shortly thereafter Jay lost _his_ footing, his balance shifting with a precarious warble before both of them were tumbling further down the path, following the downward curve in a dangerous tangle of limbs. They scraped past trees and branches, gathering speed until they careened off an overhang and free fell for a painstaking moment before they were tangled in a mess of vines. 

The vines managed to slow their descent until Jay and Chad were left to hang above a grassy, vine-covered divot that Chad could only label as a sort-of canyon. His heart was pounding in his ears by the time they had come to a stop, his body aching with various scrapes and bruises. It was a wonder they hadn’t broken any bones, and while he wanted to hold onto that brilliant flare of frustration, he couldn’t help but be painfully aware of the vines that trapped him and Jay against each other, both teens forced chest-to-chest, the vines keeping them suspended just above the ground. 

“ _…Fuck_ ,” Jay groaned, his head shaking through the gloom, as though attempting to find some clarity. “Fucking hell, Chad.”

“This is your fault, asshole,” Chad snapped, struggling against the vines. He found that both of his arms were trapped above his head, his wrists wound tightly together through ironic happenstance that left him painfully vulnerable and mostly useless. 

Just like the rest of his life. 

“If you hadn’t fought me…” Jay grumbled, mimicking Chad’s actions with a few frustrated mutters. One of his arms seemed to be trapped behind his back, and the other was hanging straight out to the side, meaning _both_ of them were useless. “ _Fuck_.”

They were stuck. They were stuck at the bottom of a steep incline, trapped in vines and who knew when they would be found, or when their circulation would start cutting off, and it was all Jay’s damn fault.

“Isn’t your dad like, a sorcerer or something?” Chad asked after a few minutes of furious struggle. “Can’t you magic us out of this?”

Mal could have done it, but Mal wasn’t here, because she wasn’t an idiot who ran off in the dead of night, motivated by her own desperate whims for importance. 

“I’m not Mal,” Jay hissed, as though reading Chad’s mind. “It doesn’t come that easily for me.”

“Does anything come easily for you?” Chad asked, trying to be annoyed because it was either that or acknowledge the fact that their legs were very much trapped together, which meant their _groins_ were touching and that was not knowledge Chad needed in his life. 

“Sure,” Jay said breezily. “I’m not _you_ either.”

“Good one,” Chad hissed, doing his best to sound impressed. “Real smooth. Ten out of ten. Why don’t you keep thinking of smart comebacks while we stay trapped in the damn vines _you_ shoved us into!”

“Stop yelling,” Jay sighed, sounding entirely over this. “You think I want to be here with you? This is like, the beginning of a porno. I don’t want to be in the beginning of a porno with you, I’d rather be with Evie, or something. Maybe Carlos.”

“And yet, you flirt with all the girls in the school,” Chad noted, glad that his flush would be hidden by the darkness.

“You noticed?” Jay hummed, sounding smug. “Worried I’m stepping into your turf? Worried that they like me more?”

“They’ll never like you more than me,” Chad insisted, even though he was pretty sure that was wrong. He was pretty sure _bad boys_ beat out _needy_ , _compulsive princes_ , even if any kind of prince could grant you a level of power only accessible to few. “You’re just a passing fad.”

“Oh, sweet evil,” Jay groaned, letting his head fall back with an aggravated slump. “I wish this _was_ the beginning of a porno. At least then something interesting would be happening.”

“Not with you,” Chad hissed, feeling his cheeks heat with warmth. “Not _ever_.”

“Never is a very long time,” Jay mused. “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.”

“Sure, now you remember what we were taught in literature class,” Chad grumbled. “You are not nearly so…”

Both of them stilled at the sudden influx of light, though it was a soft thing. Small, though it didn’t take much to make a difference against the relentless shadow of night. 

The light came from above them, and when they squinted towards it, Chad realized it was the plants themselves that were beginning to glow – a gentle sort of light that brought Chad and Jay into clear enough focus.

“O…kay,” Jay said, looking around now that they had a better view of the area. “I didn’t do that.”

“They don’t feel any different,” Chad noted with a distinct relief. “They’re just glowing.”

“Well,” Jay sniffed. “At least they’ll be able to find us easily.”

“When they start looking in a few hours, sure,” Chad said, halfway to resigned. “Don’t you have a knife or something?”

“Why?” Jay pressed. “Because I’m a delinquent?”

“Don’t say that like you don’t have weapons on you at all times,” Chad snapped. “We’re not stupid. We notice these things-”

“If you’re _looking_ for them.”

“Just admit that you can’t reach it and quit stalling,” Chad huffed. “If we’re going to be hanging here for a few hours…”

He trailed off, half hoping that his eyes had deceived him.

“What?” Jay asked, perking up with interest. “What is it?”

“The ground,” Chad said, throat thick when he swallowed. “It’s moving.”

“What?”

“The vines on the ground,” Chad elaborated. “They’re _moving_.”

Slowly, but the shifts were unmistakable now that Chad could see them. It wasn’t a few vines either, but a whole mass of them maneuvering just under their toes, making Chad’s stomach fill with ice.

“Any chance that they might be friendly?” Jay asked.

“I don’t know,” Chad hissed, tendrils of panic beginning to dig into his brain. “This might be one of the many species of plant life that hasn’t been discovered yet-” He cut off with a sharp gasp.

“What?” Jay asked, watching Chad’s gaze go wide. “What is it?” 

“It’s going up my leg.” Chad’s voice came in a tight whisper. “I can feel it wrapping up my leg.”

“Shit,” Jay said, because as close as they were, there was no missing the movement. “It hasn’t touched me.”

“ _Jay_.” Chad squeezed his eyes shut, trying hard to breathe, trying not to panic, but for whatever reason his mind kept trying to drag him back to the punishment closet his tutors would leave him in sometimes, and it wasn’t like it had been small, but it had been dark and suffocating and now Chad might be _literally_ suffocated. “Please-”

“It’s okay, Chad,” Jay soothed, even as Chad felt the vine curl against his waist, the tendril seeming to caress his side before squirming higher. “Don’t panic, okay? We’re going to get out and we’re going to be fine-”

Both of them gasped when the tendril seemed to curl around one side of Chad’s shirt and _rip_ it open, buttons popping off and falling into the greenage below.

“What the fuck?” Jay said while two vines slithered up the naked plains of Chad’s chest, pushing his shirt open until they had bared as much of Chad’s torso as possible. “ _What the fuck?_ ”

“Jay,” Chad whined, shaking when one of those tendrils circled his pectoral with a menacing sort of tease before it curled around his nipple. “ _Jay_ -”

He trailed off with a groan, and part of him would have been embarrassed by that were it not for the fact that everywhere the vine touched felt like fire, his skin seeming to register every brush and scrape with an intensity he could scarcely articulate. It made him feel hot and shaky, had his head thrown back with desperate gasps of air while the vines started to tease both his nipples into flushed nubs that sent pointed waves of pleasure through his body with each flick and stroke. 

“Holy shit,” Jay hissed, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “This is actually a porno.”

“Jay,” Chad gasped, couldn’t seem to be able to do more than that while even smaller tendrils continued to wrap and almost _lick_ at his nipples. “Jay, please, make it- _Jay-_ ”

His breath seemed to catch in his throat when he felt the smallest tendrils press _into_ his nipples, penetrating them and seeming to gush out this sort of _ooze_ that made Chad’s pectorals throb with incoherent want. 

“My nipples, Jay, it’s fucking my- _ah-_ ” The words spilled out in a sort of stream of conscious narration that Chad couldn’t stop if he wanted to because he was so overwhelmed and _aroused_ , a certain hardness swelling between his legs and struggling against the faintly glowing vines that held them in place.

“I can see that,” Jay said, unapologetic in the way he watched those tiny vines slowly push in and out of Chad, oozing goo all the way.

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad whined, humiliated and desperate. “P-Please make it stop, I- _ah_ -” If they weren’t pushing in, they were tugging, pinching the delicate nubs and flicking against them to make them even more pointed and swollen than before. They were leaking and Chad hated it, how each fresh spill of slick sent pleasure through his body.

“Fucking shit,” Jay said, his entire attention on Chad’s chest. “This should not- _fucking shit-_ ” 

Chad was glad he was talking because it slightly covered Chad’s wail when he felt his pants get torn open, the offended garments pulled down with his underwear to reveal his extreme interest in this predicament.

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad moaned, humiliation seeming to settle in his bones when a thicker vine wrapped around his length, squeezing and urging fresh trails of slick from the tip. “Jay, please-”

“Chad, buddy,” Jay said, tone bordering on hysteric. “There’s not a lot I can do here. Though trust me, I would if I- _whoa._ ”

Chad’s back arched with a broken cry when he felt another slender tendril swipe at the head of his member, rolling and pulsing and teasing until it pressed _into_ that too, and he was mewling all the while, overwhelmed with mild pain and super-heated pleasure and he didn’t know he could feel like this.

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad cried, desperately aware of the way his swollen member wavered in the other teen’s view. “P-P-Please, it-”

“Chad, bud- just breathe-”

“It hurts so good, I can’t-” Everything seemed to stutter, his mind skipping like a train thrown off its tracks when a lily-like blossom started to caress his length, the petals unfolding to reveal a sopping, gooey texture. “J-Jay?”

“Just breathe,” Jay offered, his voice tight, and Chad tried to do that, he did, but then the blossom was closing entirely around him and it was exactly what he imagined vaginal sex might be like, only he was supposed to do that with a princess after they were married and not with a fucking _plant_ in the middle of _Neverland_.

Chad thrashed against his bonds with a broken mewl, his legs flexing wide on instinct. “ _Jay_ ,” he crooned. “It’s so hot, it’s so tight, I can’t- it’s s-sucking and-”

“Oh yeah,” Jay said, watching the blossom bob up and down as it applied steady suction. “Is it still, you know, _in_ you?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Chad moaned. “Pumping in and out and the _goo-_ ”

“I don’t need to know about the goo,” Jay admitted, staring at Chad’s chest that was still definitely getting milked.

“ _Please_ ,” Chad groaned. “Please. I know I- I know I suck. I know I’m stupid and weak but please make it s-stop. I can’t-”

“Chad,” Jay said, his voice seemingly filled with regret. “ _Fuck_. I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad whined as he felt himself shoved forward, collapsing against Jay’s front as a swell of tentacles curled between his cheeks. He could feel humiliated tears bead at the corner of his eyes. “P-Please. It’s going to- _ah_ -”

It started small, with a tiny, wet tendril licking around the diameter of Chad’s entrance, making it good and lubricated and leaving heat everywhere it went. He hardly felt it when that insubstantial thing slipped inside him, but he knew it was building, more and more thin tentacles moving to join the first one until he could _feel_ the girth, and then they were leaking, moving in and out of him in an effort to stretch his muscles. 

“Chad?” Jay asked when the blond had been quiet for a few moments, the prince biting at his bottom lip in an effort to stifle his noise.

“It’s gonna f-fuck me,” Chad whispered, voice hoarse as shameful tears spilled down his cheeks. “Jay-”

“Aw, shit,” Jay said, and to his credit, he at least seemed regretful. “Just try to relax, okay? It’s gonna hurt more if you tense up.”

“M-My body feels weird,” Chad admitted with the last dregs of his coherency, and it did. On top of the thrum of arousal was a certain heat that kept twisting in his gut, perhaps the slime that kept being pumped into his nipples, his length, and now in his entrance, making him writhe and feel superheated. 

“Yeah, that’s ‘cuz you’re getting fucked by a plant,” Jay offered unhelpfully. “That probably goes against the natural order of things.”

“W-Why me?” Chad moaned because the vines were getting thicker now, but he kept stretching to accommodate them easily, his skin tingling in their wake. “Why not you?”

“I dunno, maybe they got a taste for royalty?” Jay tried. “Blonds have more fun?”

“I h-hate you,” Chad gasped, breath catching because the mess of vines inside him brushed against a _spot_ that made figurative stars burst in his eyes. “ _Fuck_. W-What-?”

“Must have found your prostate,” Jay mused as the vines pulled out of Chad again, only to push their way in with a sudden ruthlessness. “Bright side, now you know you like anal sex.”

Chad couldn’t even form coherent words anymore, spilling off into broken sounds as the vines began fucking him in earnest. He felt bare despite the fact that he was mostly covered in plant life. He hated that there was nothing he could do but put on a private show for Jay, who watched with rapid attention, the vines brushing against his prostate and making him pulse into the vacuum mouth of the lily’s wet folds and his nipples kept leaking and-

“I’m gonna- I’m gonna come, Jay. I’m gonna-” Chad could feel it approaching, threatening to swallow him like a tsunami. “Jay, Jay, _Jay_.”

“Chad,” Jay said, the look on his face unreadable. “Chad-”

Just when it felt like he was going to fall over the edge, everything seemed to come to a ruthless stop. 

The plants froze – vines buried deep inside Chad and wrapped around him and oozing into him, all of them seeming to wait for him to acclimate, wait for Chad to catch his breath until they slowly, teasingly, pulled away. 

Chad whined, shifting against the vines that held him still while the lily unwrapped from his dick, leaving it shimmering and swollen in the lowlight of the plant’s glow. There was no missing the way Jay watched with rapt attention when that tiny tendril finally pulled itself from Chad’s member, unraveling in slow teases until Chad was left breathless at how _much_ had been in him. The same went for the vines teasing his nipples, for the ones buried inside his entrance. 

All of them left with prolonged movements that had Chad shaking, until at last the vines that had trapped them there in the first place lowered Chad and Jay to the ground, seeming to unwrap from the two teens until they could stand of their own volition.

Well, Jay was standing. Chad was slumping against Jay, whining when his wet dick brushed against the other teen’s thigh and mindful of the bulge Jay was sporting between his own legs as they tried to catch their breath.

“So,” Jay said after a few moments. “At least we discovered something.”

“If you tell anyone about this, I’ll kill you,” Chad promised, humiliated and frustrated and **_hard_**. “I don’t care what they do to me, I’ll kill you myself. I’ll-”

“Relax,” Jay soothed, having the audacity to run a hand through Chad’s curls. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Not even Carlos,” Chad pressed, because those two were peas in a pod. “I’m serious, Jay. I know you like having a good laugh over me-”

“Chad,” Jay squeezed him close, which was sort of awful but Chad shivered into it anyway, rutting his groin hopefully against Jay’s hip. “I won’t tell anyone. I’m not that much of an asshole.”

“ _Please?_ ” Chad asked, knowing he was a pathetic sight. “Please-”

“Look,” Jay’s voice was uncharacteristically gentle when he steadied Chad on his own two feet. “The way I see it, you pretty much took a hit for me, okay? That in itself guarantees my silence.”

“Even if it was funny,” Chad sniffed, wiping furiously at his cheeks.

“There’s nothing funny about that,” Jay said, so serious that Chad almost believed him. “And there’s no one that needs to know about this, alright? Let’s just get back to the cabins.” He looked down at Chad’s trembling form, which was definitely still leaking slime and terribly, terribly aroused. “Do you need help with that?”

“I wanna forget it exists,” Chad lied before he could say _yes_ , before he could grab Jay’s hand and shove it between his legs, acting on an impulse he had long-since killed because if he didn’t, he would never be able to stop. “Can we um- just go back?”

“Sure, I’ll just…” Jay flushed as he tugged Chad’s clothes back into place, Chad pulling his underwear up with shaking fingers because what if Jay accidentally touched him, and sure his buttons were a lost cause and his fly was busted but at least he looked closer to respectable.

If one could ignore his horrible arousal. 

“Let’s get back to camp,” Jay said, wrapping one of Chad’s arms around his shoulders and bustling back in the right direction, back towards the slope and hopefully, freedom.

It figured that Chad would discover the most terrible way to end a fieldtrip. It was a gift.

-:-:-:-:-:-

By the time they got back to the cabins, Chad was still aroused, but at least they hadn’t made the rounds for headcount yet, which meant Chad and Jay had been given exactly one free pass. 

“We are splitting up here,” Chad declared when Jay fidgeted awkwardly beside him. “We are going back to our cabins, and we are never talking about this again.”

“Shouldn’t you get checked out by a doctor, or something?” Jay asked, and to his credit, he sounded genuinely concerned.

Too bad this concern came too little too late, so Chad refused to be charmed by it.

“And we _never_ speak of this again,” he repeated, and then proceeded to limp back to his cabin with as much dignity as he could manage after having been thoroughly ravished by a plant. 

Ben was still asleep by the time Chad snuck back inside, and Chad spared enough time to thank his good fortune before grabbing a fresh set of sleepwear and slipping into their private bathroom. Most cabin clusters shared a communal space, but when you were catering to the future elite of Auradon, you tended to spring for additional amenities.

Chad was grateful for that now; grateful he could hide in the shower and wash away his misadventure. Could finally satisfy the throbbing ache between his legs and forget tonight had ever happened. It was a relief to turn the shower on, to shrug out of his clothes until he was gloriously unrestricted. He hated the feel of slickness spilling down the back of his legs, spilling _out_ of his entrance and dripping down his length and smearing against his chest. His reflection in the mirror made his pulse stutter, the vision sinful in its neediness, and Jay had been watching it up close. Had watched Chad’s flush spread down his chest, watched his nipples swell and even now Chad wanted to toy with them, wanted to relieve the ache – but now was not the time. He needed to shower, needed to get under the water and finish cleaning himself before Ben woke up and thought something was wrong.

“Chad?”

The blond jolted, heart stuttering in his chest as he turned to look over his shoulder. He could have sworn he had locked the door, and yet Ben was standing in the open doorway with a confused expression, a dark flush spilling across the bridge of his nose.

“Chad?” he repeated, pupils seeming to dilate when they landed on Chad’s debauched form. “What…”

“It’s nothing,” Chad insisted, trying to cover his chest with one hand and his groin with the other and knowing that the mirror revealed all. “I just- I need to take another shower.”

“Chad,” Ben said, and he seemed to be in a daze, eyes half lidded as he moved forward, entranced. “You smell good.”

“I- what?” Chad didn’t know what was happening, hadn’t accounted for Ben boxing him against the glass of the shower stall like a predator trapping its prey, looking over Chad with an open sort of lust. 

This couldn’t- this wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening; Ben didn’t like dudes.

“ _Chad_ ,” Ben groaned, hands settling on Chad’s hips like brands, the king moving forward to nuzzle the hollow of Chad’s throat. “You smell so good.”

“B-Ben.” Chad’s breath felt tight in his chest.

“ _Look_ so good,” Ben rumbled with a satisfaction that made Chad shake. “I’m gonna-”

Apparently that sentence ended with ‘drop to my knees’ because that was exactly what Ben did, one of the king’s hands leaving Chad’s hips so it could curl between his legs-

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad gasped, feeling himself leak a new stream of ooze. “B-Ben, it-”

Chad didn’t know what he was trying to say, and never found out because after that Ben was shifting forward, wrapping his lips _around_ Chad’s length and swallowing him down with an enthusiasm that should be illegal.

“Ben!” Chad shuddered when he felt himself fall apart in the king’s throat, and Ben didn’t even seem to care, his mouth desperate to drink Chad down. “Ben, Ben, _please-_ it’s too- it’s too good-” 

He was sore, from the tendrils. He was oversensitive and feeling it with every bob of Ben’s head, the hyperaware flesh seeming to pulse new waves of arousal up Chad’s chest until he found himself hard again.

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad crooned, one hand tangling in that short, brown hair and this- this was not a thing that should happen. 

Chad shouldn’t have the king of Auradon sexually satisfying him. He shouldn’t have the king of Auradon hard for him, and yet that was exactly what was happening, and the thought of it had Chad falling apart again, not that it seemed to make much of a difference.

“Ben,” Chad began to chant when he realized he was going to get worked up again, when he realized that the plant had changed something in him. “Ben, Ben, Ben, please, it- _Ben_ -” There were fingers probing at his entrance, curling inside Chad without any sort of problem and thrusting deep. And those were Ben’s fingers sliding through the slick, Ben’s fingers scissoring Chad open and that was _Ben_ humming with satisfaction, looking up at Chad with sultry eyes as he pushed his fingers as deep as they could go with a pointed thrust. 

“Chad,” Ben groaned when he pulled off the blond, his lips flushed and wet from Chad, and Ben didn’t seem to care, couldn’t possibly manage the effort. “ _Chad_.”

“S-Sorry,” Chad said, suddenly feeling horribly vulnerable. “Sorry- _Ben!_ ”

The king was picking Chad up, cradling the blond against his chest with a growl before he deposited Chad on his bed, looking him over with a furious sort of hunger. 

“So wet,” Ben said when he pushed Chad’s thighs up towards his chest, leaving him half bent and entirely on display. “For me. I’m gonna-”

“ _Ben_ ,” Chad groaned, and then the king was shoving his clothes out of the way, revealing his throbbing interest and guiding it between Chad’s cheeks-

It took no effort for Ben to push inside Chad, and yet Chad hadn’t been more achingly aware of something in years, feeling every shift and throb and negligible stretch as Ben thrust into his heat. 

“Ben,” Chad gasped, because this was- this was different than before. Before, he’d been fucked by a plant but this was a king, a king rutting inside Chad and he was letting it happen and Chad didn’t know what it meant, because Ben seemed so very dedicated to Mal but he was fucking Chad like his life depended on it, growling and snarling all the while. 

Chad felt hot, his insides seeming to twist and shift to accommodate this pleasure he couldn’t comprehend. He felt like he was glowing, knew he actually _was_ due to the plant remnants on his skin, making his abdomen radiate a gentle sort of shimmer that was a direct contrast to the turmoil wrecking inside Chad. 

Ben growled, leaning forward to catch one of Chad’s swollen nipples in his teeth, and sucked down so hard just as he shoved against Chad’s prostate that the prince found himself pulsing completely apart. 

Ben guided him through that too, one hand deftly settled between Chad’s legs as he pumped him furiously. Ben seemed to know that Chad wasn’t done yet better than Chad did, seemed to understand the new limitations established by the plant, and Chad didn’t know what to say, what to do- settled on clinging to Ben’s shoulders and letting his mouth carry on with incomprehensible nonsense as he tried to ride out the wave of his pleasure.

“Ben, Ben, Ben,” Chad cooed while the light seemed to burn brighter, the heat in his stomach burning hotter. “Ben, I-”

“ _Mine_ ,” Ben growled, and with a pointed _thrust_ , Chad felt him fall over the edge. 

Despite everything that had happened, Chad felt an almost painful awareness of that slickness. He felt the heat release into his body, the twisting sensation ebb into a sort of tipping point before he was coming undone once more, Ben’s hand pumping him all the while. 

When it was finished, Chad finally seemed to be done, his body hot and wracked with a full sort of ache. Ben pulled out of him with a whine, pressing a messy kiss to Chad’s shoulder before he flopped onto his side and immediately passed out. 

It took Chad a few minutes to come back to himself, for his breath to even out and his body temperature to fall into something normal again. He wasn’t glowing anymore, but he was definitely sated in a way he couldn’t identify. He only knew that he felt glad instead of weird. 

It wasn’t worth looking into. 

When Chad was as settled as he could be, he slipped out of Ben’s bed, grateful that they hadn’t gotten any evidence of their deeds splattered onto the sheets. He tucked Ben into his clothes with a muted sort of embarrassment before throwing a blanket over him and retreating back to the shower, to the water that was now only warm. 

He kept his actions as mechanical as possible as he washed the evening’s festivities off his body. He washed away slime and his release, wondered where the hell Ben’s had gone before deciding that was a problem for the future before robotically ending the shower, drying himself off, and slipping into his fresh clothes. The ruined ones he hid at the bottom of his duffel bag before he crawled into his own bed, collapsing in exhaustion underneath the covers while he stubbornly refused to think of what the morning would bring him.

Probably nothing. This was, as Chad told Jay, something they were going to forget about immediately.

So he decided to do that, then promptly fell asleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-

There were concerns, of course, that came the next morning. Concerns with Ben’s reaction, concerns that Jay wouldn’t keep his mouth shut, that they actually had missed headcount and Chad was going to get blamed for it when he was the one who had been accosted by a horny plant in his effort to save Jay some face.

In a strange turn of events, all those worries seemed to be for nothing. Ben didn’t treat Chad any differently than he had any of the other days on their fieldtrip, being polite and friendly without engaging too much. Chad suspected that the other prince didn’t remember what happened – maybe he’d been overtaken by his beast, the way he did sometimes when he was really angry – but Chad sure as shit wasn’t going to mention it to him. Not when Jay was keeping a pointed distance, flushing exactly one time when he looked at Chad before seeming to decide to put the prince from his mind entirely. 

They got back to Auradon Prep without fuss. Everything was fine. They would go into winter break soon and Chad would pretend to return home to a raucous celebration, when really he would be touring Sardinia for press appearances before spending Yule alone in his wing of the castle, wondering what bottle his father had decided to try to find the bottom of. He and his grandfather would share a quiet but tense breakfast in an attempt to feign normality, and then Chad would hunt down Captain Anozie, the head of his father’s guard, and talk a lot without saying much of anything at all while they both tried not to wonder if that would be the day the king drank himself death.

Good fun all around. 

Chad wasn’t looking forward to it, exactly, but he was resigned to it, and committed himself to the usual routine of managing his too full schedule with completing midterms until he was packing a suitcase for Yule break and wondering where the time went. 

He didn’t see much of Jay, didn’t ask where the transfer kids would be going, if they’d be going anywhere. He didn’t talk to Ben, but he tried to wish Audrey a happy Yule (she had it worse than he did, with two kingdoms she had to satisfy and two grandmothers who would never be pleased with her actions so long as she wasn’t with Ben), tried to give Jane his best. He’d already said goodbye to his roommate, Doug – the rest of his break would be predictable. Comforting in its confirmed dependability.

So of course Chad got sick. 

He guessed. 

It wasn’t a consistent thing. He just found himself getting nauseous more frequently than normal. Considering the fact that he rarely had an upset stomach, it was disconcerting, especially considering its consistency. At first he thought he had a stomach bug and treated it as such, eating gentle foods and drinking Pedialyte and hoping the stupid sickness wouldn’t interfere with his duties too much. It was especially bad in the mornings, when he couldn’t seem to keep anything down, and he almost always found himself hungry, though that was likely due to the food he kept throwing up. 

The symptoms kept exacerbating. It got to the point where Chad barely managed his Yule breakfast with his grandfather before he was retreating to his suite entirely, trying to swallow down his vomit and wondering what in the hell was wrong with him. 

After some brief research that led to a grand total of zero answers, Chad dealt with the reality that this likely had something to do with the unknown plant toxins that had been injected into his body and made a difficult decision. That was what had him traveling back to Central Auradon the day after Yule, what had him walking up the path of Fairy Godmother’s cottage. 

As to be expected, the fairy was surprised to see Chad, but she let him in once she noticed his pale pallor, motioning him towards the kitchen.

“Hello, sweetheart,” she cooed, her voice a comforting thing Chad would have clung to were he allowed it. 

But Fairy Godmother was not allowed favoritism, and she had chosen her job as teacher to all over being a part of Chad’s family. While the prince understood that was for the greater good, part of him couldn’t help but be bitter by the decision.

“Are you looking for Jane?” she asked as she set about making tea. “I’m afraid you just missed her. She’s down at Auradon Castle with Ben and the others.”

She didn’t need to clarify who the others were and while it wasn’t any kind of surprise, Chad still found it in himself to be hurt by the exclusion. 

“I’m actually here for you,” Chad said, fiddling with the handle of his coffee mug. “I’ve um… been sick recently and I- I was hoping- I can’t… I don’t know _why_ -”

“Oh, Chadwick.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, giving him a light squeeze. “Of course I’ll help, dear. At the very least, I can diagnose you. From there, we can put your worries to rest, okay?”

She gave him a kind smile, because she was one of the few individuals privy to Chad’s extreme bouts of anxiety and compulsions, who understood the façade he managed in an effort to gain some sort of comfort from his peers. For him, it was a necessity. The real Chad was a mess. 

She might not be able to play favorites, but she could ignore the Magic Ban for him however briefly, and that was enough for him.

“I’d appreciate that, Fairy Godmother,” Chad said, letting his shoulders slump with relief.

Maybe he was overthinking this, letting his anxieties get the best of him. If she could tell him it was just a stomach flu everything would be fine. The Neverland plant might not have anything to do with this at all. At the very least, this could exclude it.

That was all Chad wanted now. Just some peace of mind.

“Okay,” she said, flicking her hand in a familiar pattern. The wand summoned to her hand easily – a sort of connection that was basically ingrained between every fairy and their conjuring tool. 

Fairy Godmother had explained it to him once. Had explained that for all the security measures that were put in place, no matter where the wand went, she would be able to summon it to her. Its why he hadn’t been truly worried at coronation. Fairy Godmother had wanted to see what Mal would do. 

It seemed she chose correctly. 

“I’ll just do a quick diagnosis and you’ll be all good,” she chirped. “You’ll feel a bit of warmth, but nothing else.”

Chad nodded, heart thick in his throat as a familiar glow traveled over him, Fairy Godmother magically acquiring the information she needed to know in less than a second.

“Okay,” she hummed, closing her eyes as she reviewed the data. “Let me see. I’ll just…” she cut off with a frown, her brows drawn together. “That can’t be right.”

“What?” Chad felt his pulse spike. “What can’t be right?”

“I’m just going to try again,” Fairy Godmother said instead of answering him, the light flicking over him once more. When it finished, she didn’t seem any more reassured. “I… this is impossible.”

“What?” Chad asked, clutching his mug of tea closer to his chest. “What’s impossible?”

“Just…” When she opened her eyes to look at him, her usual cheer and mothering instinct seemed to be gone, replaced with a steady seriousness and open concern. “My wand thinks that you’re pregnant.”

It took a while for the words to hit Chad. He heard them, nodded to show his understanding, but didn’t really register them until a few seconds later, when he felt ice drip down his spine. “I… what?”

“Both spells said the same thing,” Fairy Godmother pressed. “I’m getting readings as though you were a pregnant female, but that can’t be right.” She turned to really look at him. “Chad, did anything happen in Neverland?”

Chad felt his hand shaking on the coffee mug, felt himself gripped with such extreme terror that he had to set the cup down before he dropped it, that he struggled to meet her eyes.

Her tone was worried now. “ _Chad_.”

“I…” His tongue felt thick in his mouth. “Yes, but it- it shouldn’t-”

It shouldn’t have led to this. Not this. A disease or a curse he could have taken, but _this_?

It was unfair, a gross level of humiliation that he hadn’t deserved, for all that he was an asshole. 

“Chad,” Fairy Godmother said, settling into the chair next to him. “I need you to tell me what happened.”

So he did. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, I know what you’re thinking, and if you’ve given this thing a chance and made it this far – thank you, I appreciate it. I’m not really one that’s much for Mpregs, but once this idea got into my head, I couldn’t shake it, so I went ahead and wrote it down until it snowballed into a monstrosity that I’m actually quite happy with. True as the summary says, the actual Mpreg parts of the story are barely mentioned. This focuses more on what happens after the fact, and the political/relationship/family drama that falls out from there. So if you’re interested in that kind of thing, that’s what this story will give you :)
> 
> This story will consist of 13 chapters of story content, a short epilogue, and one chapter of deleted scenes. The deleted scenes and epilogue will be posted along with chapter 13. As always, please let me know if I missed something in the tags. I prefer to ere on the side of caution with these things, but when you stare at something long enough, it can be easy to lose the details :)
> 
> I update once a week, generally on Sundays, but because things have been so crazy lately, I decided to make an effort to update twice a week. So there will be one update on Sunday and one update on Wednesday/Thursday for now :D 
> 
> Just a heads up – I update the story tags as I go in order to avoid spoilers. So characters, pairings, content warnings – all will be updated in correlation to the appropriate chapter as they are posted. Please check the fore-notes if you see a tag that worries you – that’s where I will have my general warnings for the more intense stuff if they’re needed. 
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> This is another story that features the Magic Ban because I read a lot of Descendants fics before working on my own, and it was mentioned so frequently that I took it as canon when in the movies, it’s actually more like magic’s just out of practice/fashion. Still, we be addressing the absurdity that is a potential Magic Ban in this story, because that’s just how I roll ;)
> 
> The Sardinian Captain of the guard wasn't given a name in the live action Cinderella movie despite being prominently featured so I named him after his actor, Nonso Anozie. Hence, Captain Anozie. 
> 
> Also, Sardinia is my name for Cinderellasburg, because Cinderellasburg is dumb. 
> 
> For those of you who have read my past works, Chad’s grandfather isn’t actually a bad guy in this one. He is a busy, weary one who does his best, reverting to old habits of blocking out his emotions and trying to keep Chad occupied not to keep him out of the way, but to distract the prince from the troubles back home. He’ll really shine later in the story, but for once – good guy Duke. 
> 
> WARNING – Non-con – In the first scene, Chad is assaulted by a magical plant he cannot escape because he and Jay are wrapped up in vines. If you would prefer to skip that entirely, please look for this line:
> 
> “Shit,” Jay said, because as close as they were, there was no missing the movement. “It hasn’t touched me.” 
> 
> Skip down to:
> 
> “So,” Jay said after a few moments. “At least we discovered something.”
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – In the second scene, Chad has retreated to his cabin and is trying to wash off the plant’s residue, which seems to activate Ben’s beast. Ben’s entirely out of it, acting on instinct, and Chad’s entirely overwhelmed. He’s more in disbelief than anything else, but no real communication happens before they have sex. If you’d like to skip this, please look for:
> 
> “Chad,” Ben said, and he seemed to be in a daze, eyes half lidded as he moved forward, entranced. “You smell good.” 
> 
> Skip down to: 
> 
> It wasn’t worth looking into.
> 
> WANING – Referenced Alcoholism – There is a paragraph in scene 3 where Chad references his father’s alcoholism and wondering if that year would be when it led to the king’s death. I didn’t want anyone to be blindsided by it, so if you would prefer to skip that, please look for the paragraph that starts with:
> 
> 'They got back to Auradon Prep without fuss. Everything was fine…'
> 
> Everything afterwards is safe. 
> 
> Until next time


	2. The Quest

There was a heavy silence when he finished telling his story, and while he had been embarrassed before, recounting the tale really established his humiliation. He hung his head in shame, fingers shaking against the edge of Fairy Godmother’s table, because he was a dirty thing desecrating her space.

“…Chadwick,” she said quietly, her hand settling on his shoulder. “What happened wasn’t your fault, sweetie. You were trying to look after Jay, and that’s commendable.”

“But stupid,” Chad murmured, squeezing his eyes shut. “I couldn’t- if I’d just let him go, I wouldn’t be-” He cut himself off with a sharp inhale, slammed by the brutal unfairness of it all. “How… how did it happen?”

“I have a theory,” Fairy Godmother offered, and Chad turned to her, desperate for any kind of explanation in the wake of such chaos. “I heard tale of a peculiar sort of plant in Neverland called Wishing Greens. They were rumors only, but I believe with Jadir’s background and your blood-”

“M-My blood?” Chad echoed, scrubbing at his cheeks, frustrated at the tears that continued to occasionally spill.

She gave him a light smile. “Yes, dear – your blood. There’s a reason your mother called to me, you know. Her family – _your_ family, is Fae-blessed. They must have done a great boon to fairy kind many years ago for the blessing to hold so strong, but because of that, you’re extra susceptible to certain magics.”

“And these plants,” Chad said. “Because of Jay…”

His dumb, _stupid_ ‘wish’.

Fairy Godmother blushed. “Yes, I believe his heritage came into play as well. With his father being both sorcerer and genie, the plants were extra potent, and then Benjamin…” She sighed. “This entire thing is the product of very unlikely circumstances aligning at just the right moment. Were you roommates with anyone else, you would have been unaffected, but the beast-like urges that run in Ben’s blood made him susceptible to the Wishing Greens, made him extra virile and you extra fertile until…” She motioned to Chad. “There you are.”

“So… it’s Ben’s?” Chad asked, and while part of him had been aware of this possibility, he had been desperately hoping he was wrong. “ _Ben’s_ baby? Ben, who’s not even my friend?”

Chad placed a hand on this stomach, and for all that he felt only queasy, he could remember the pointed memory of that twisting heat.

The only reason Ben had roomed with Chad was because he was the only other royal on the fieldtrip and etiquette had dictated they board together. It would have been a slight otherwise. It wasn’t like Ben had a choice. 

“Oh, Ben likes you, sweetie,” Fairy Godmother soothed, wrapping an arm around Chad’s shoulders. “I promise, he does. And this is going to be okay. It’s different, certainly, but not something that can’t be managed-”

“It’s not okay,” Chad said, feeling a new wave of tears pour down his cheeks. “I’m an- an _abomination_. Boys aren’t supposed to be pregnant, and even if they were, I’m a teenager!” Pregnant at sixteen was an instant fall from grace as far as royalty was concerned. “They’ll call me a whore and an atrocity, and then they’ll take my kid because they won’t- it’s _Ben’s_ and they won’t care that-”

Chad cut himself off with a hard sob, wrapping his arms around his stomach. He couldn’t even feel the kid yet and he was already mourning its loss, knowing his life was all but over.

“You are _not_ an abomination,” Fairy Godmother soothed, pressing a kiss against Chad’s forehead. “And you’re certainly not a whore, Chadwick. What happened wasn’t your fault. And no one’s taking your child without your permission.”

“Don’t be s-stupid,” Chad gasped. “They’ll be the heir to A-Auradon. They’ll h- _have_ to, and-” Chad sobbed again, and Fairy Godmother rushed to console him, rocking him gently as he rode out the wave of his tears. 

When he had calmed down slightly, she spoke up again. “Do you want to keep this child, Chadwick?”

“Of- of course,” Chad sniffed, graciously accepting her offered tissue. “I know I’m not that great, but I’d- for a kid- _my_ kid, I’d try. I wanna- I’ll be a good dad.” Better than his own. “I promise. I’ll be there and I’ll be invested and we’ll celebrate Yule and I won’t- I won’t put them under too much pressure-” 

“Okay,” Fairy Godmother interrupted. “Okay, I believe you.”

“ _Please_ ,” Chad moaned, leaning against her side. “Please h-help me. I don’t- I don’t know what to do.”

Fairy Godmother was terribly quiet for a moment, and then she spoke up.

“If… if you’re certain you want to keep them,” she said, her voice very, very soft. “Then I might have an idea.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

A quest. Fairy Godmother had decided they’d take a quest.

“We’ll leave before school starts back up,” she declared, bustling around her office now that the decision had been made. “It will be important to get you out of the public spotlight as soon as possible, so I’ll pretend to have seen a prophecy of a quest in the Outerlands that only you are suitable for, and with our connection it will be no surprise that you have been selected.”

She started organizing her papers – teachers whose assignments she’d have to rearrange and prospective temporary principals to hold her place until she got back. 

“I’ll have Genie verify my claim,” she said. “He still owes me, and he’ll do it, considering the circumstances.”

“Okay,” Chad sniffed, overwhelmed but closer to settled now that they had a plan.

“We will be gone on our mystical quest for two to three years,” Fairy Godmother continued. “You’ll work on completing your GED in our downtime, and as a reward for the completion of our quest, you will receive a Celestial Blessing by way of a child,” she explained. “It hasn’t happened in many a century, but great heroes who were prepared for parenthood but weren’t in a place to conceive were sometimes given the gift of a child born of their own blood, mixed with the blood of another mortal. While I will confirm that the other partner in this union is a royal, they will have no grounds to take the child, as they were given by celestial blessing, which gives _you_ total parental control.”

“Oh wow,” Chad said, feeling warm just at the thought of it. “And you’re okay with lying?”

At that, Fairy Godmother paused her frantic efforts, staring Chad dead in the eye. “Yes, sweetheart,” she said, keeping her voice soft. “I’m okay with this. I… I was forced to make a decision a long time ago that I believed was for the greater good of Auradon.” She looked down at her paperwork, her lips pulling into a light frown. “In hindsight, I very much regret that choice. And this- it won’t make up for it, but it is the right thing.” When she looked up again, her expression was determined. “And I will not be put off from doing what is right again. My heart wouldn’t be able to take it.”

“Oh,” Chad said, knowing without _knowing_ that she was referring to him.

She regretted it.

And selfish though it was, that meant almost everything to Chad.

“Now don’t worry about another thing,” Fairy Godmother tutted, herding him towards the couch. “You sit down and drink your tea and leave the details to me, okay? We have a long road ahead of us.”

“If you’re there with me, I don’t think it will be quite so scary,” Chad admitted, his cheeks filling with a contented warmth.

The smile she gifted him was nothing short of lovely. “You remind me so much of her, sometimes. And in others, you are so distinctly _you_ that I’m breathless. Either way I find that it – and you – are a gift, Chadwick.”

Chad swallowed, felt a new wave of tears build in his eyes. “Thank you, Fairy Godmother.”

“No thanks necessary, sweetheart,” she assured him. “That’s what family’s for.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad would like to think that two years were like five minutes, but that was hardly the case. Chad and Fairy Godmother left in the dark of night, traveling north past Arendelle, through the Enchanted Forest and onwards. Ahtohallan was a firm specter in the distance when they made their way to the bitter Outerlands, a place of constant cold and jagged rock – endless mountains that were seemingly inhospitable. 

“We’re not just going to do be doing nothing while we’re out here, you know,” Fairy Godmother said, bustling into the frozen cold as though she was strolling a farmers’ market, Chad wandering behind her with wide eyes. “You have been blessed by Wishing Greens, and because of your blood, this will mean you are susceptible to magic now more than ever. As your Fairy Godmother, it is my duty to prepare you to navigate this new world you can’t help but be exposed to.”

“What does that mean?” Chad asked, raising his voice over the rapid torrents of wind.

“It means, my dear, that I am going to train you to be the first wizard to walk Auradon since Merlin stepped foot into Camelot,” Fairy Godmother declared, her smile wide and bright. “It means that I am making you my apprentice.”

“Well…” Chad blinked, mulling this thought over in his mind. “I suppose I always wanted to be special.”

“You _are_ special, Chadwick,” Fairy Godmother said, wearing that slightly pinched expression of hers. “You don’t need magic for that.”

Chad felt himself blush. “Then um… I suppose I’m grateful to pick up the family trade, then.”

At that, Fairy Godmother’s tension vanished. “That’s the spirit, dearie,” she chirped, clapping her hands together. “Now to make you a wand.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad’s first quest was to create his own wand, which was a challenge in itself. They did it while he was still maneuverable, before he began to show too terribly much. It was during those early months that they created their own mini settlement deep in the Outerlands – Fairy Godmother teaching him how to create wards, how to make the earth fertile. She taught him how to build log cabins from stone and how to transfigure dirt into furniture and even though it took a lot of energy and concentration and time, they made a home that was suitable enough for them, that felt cozier than Chad’s sprawling castle ever did back in Sardinia. 

There was practical application and theoretical studies, and more than once Chad would wake up to find their home invaded by an immensely powerful magic user that had been drawn by their ingenuity. A lot of times it was Genie, who spoke rapidly but always made Chad smile, or Merlin, who liked to review Chad’s formulas before puttering off to get him more books for reference. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather appeared to admire the gardens, and a woman who insisted Chad call her Aunt Tilly always managed to appear in a whirlwind of energy that left Chad’s head spinning, though she was always kind, always bubbly, always a ray of sunshine in their dark corner of the world.

At first Chad worried, because the whole point of this was to hide his unnatural pregnancy, but there was an unspoken code amongst beings who became so proficient in magic they could hardly understand the squabbles of common morality. They knew, without asking, that Chad’s predicament was his quest, and they found it to be a noble one indeed. 

“Think nothing of it, my sweet,” the Blue Fairy assured him in that lyrical voice of hers when Chad was beginning to show, feeling awkward in his clothing and his body and clinging to his wand for some sort of stability. “Your dedication to protecting a young life is an honorable thing, something to be admired, and none of us would hold your determination to protect that gift against you.” 

“Yes, yes, you’re hot shit,” Merlin agreed from where he was buried in the alchemy corner. “Now someone find me those damn newt legs, we’re on the verge of a potion breakthrough here!”

The world outside their unintentional magic retreat kept spinning, of course. School ended with Cotillion when Chad was five months pregnant (and _feeling_ it) and four months later, when their junior year of high school had just started up, Chad’s world was forever changed with the birth of Bellanca James – or Bella, for short. 

Chad knew he wasn’t the most creative person in the world, but it seemed too perfect to combine the names of his and Ben’s mother, and Bella was, without question, Chad’s daughter with her mop of unruly blond curls. 

Her eyes where completely Ben’s though, a light hazel that took Chad’s breath away when they blinked up at the bright new world they got to discover. 

Despite being in isolation, Chad had many guests visit Bella those first few days, the entire magic contingent of Auradon seeming determined to dote on their little witch to-be.

“Her father is a wizard,” Merlin pointed out behind his cup of coffee, trying hard to hide the tears of joy gleaming in his eyes. “Therefore his daughter will be a witch, not a _sorceress_.”

“Her blood is Fae-blessed too!” Merryweather insisted, fluttering near the ceiling so she could get ‘the best angle’ for baby photos. “If magic’s in her blood, she could be a sorceress too.”

“Stick with the witch thing, kiddo,” Genie whispered, half phasing through the bottom of the bed so he could lean next to Bella’s pink face. “Every sorcerer I’ve met’s gone off the deep-end. Shallows are where it’s at. Get yourself some floaties and you’ll be good to go.”

“Isn’t Jadir a sorcerer?” Blue Fairy asked, pausing her efforts to conjure new baby clothes with Fairy Godmother so she could contribute to the conversation. “And the young Maleficent too. They seem to be doing alright.”

Chad was exhausted, but not so tired that he couldn’t roll his eyes. “If Jay’s a sorcerer, he’s an awful one.”

But it was a level of awful that had gotten Chad Bella, so he couldn’t really complain. 

Single parenthood at seventeen was terrifying, but with the entire magic contingent of Auradon seeming determined to pitch in, it sort of felt like a group effort. Chad was better at managing his anxiety with the help of Fairy Godmother and the knowledge that they probably wouldn’t let him fail, and with that, Bella went from being one month to one year old before he could ever really notice it. He was too busy parenting, too busy finishing up his GED and Sardinian studies and then turning to work on his wizarding research and training.

Fairy Godmother left from time to time to catch up with Jane, to check on the school and pick up news from the real world, but things seemed to keep turning. Chad worried about hogging Jane’s mother to himself, but Fae connections worked differently than human ones. It turned out that the two could talk to each other through their dreams every night and frequently did so, meaning Chad didn’t monopolize Fairy Godmother as much as he feared. 

Ben proposed to Mal when Bella turned two, and not long after that the barrier around the Isle was taken down for once and for all.

And while that action was brilliant, it was also a distinct call for Chad to return to the real world. _Prince Chadwick_ would be needed to help with Sardinia’s contributions to Isle refugees and the overhaul of the penal system, which meant it was time for Bella to see her home kingdom.

“Aw, hell,” Merlin grumbled as he helped Chad and Fairy Godmother pack away their most important things, Aunt Tilly humming a joyful tune as she kept Bella occupied. “Do you have to go? It’s so nice to have a place where we magic users can actually be ourselves.”

“We don’t have to close this place down,” Chad said, feeling more grounded than he had in years at the age of nineteen, strong and confident after being allowed freedom from the demanding public of Sardinia. “I was thinking we could keep the teleportation runes up so we all have a safe place to retreat to if needed. The enchantments will keep everything safe, and we can still trade research or request help.”

“Not that we need it,” Merlin sniffed, Genie audibly giggling in his minuscule form from his perch on Merlin’s shoulder. “…but that would be nice.”

“I’m also going to move to have Sardinia get an allowance from the magic ban,” Chad continued. “Because of my quest, and all. I think Ben will allow it, and then we’ll make a new workshop right by the castle.”

“It _would_ be nice to be located near some actual chefs,” Merlin mused, much to Fairy Godmother’s exasperation, but Chad took it with fondness, appreciating the additional grandfather he’d never thought he’d get. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Bella was two and walking by the time they made it back to Sardinia, her vocabulary small but enthusiastic and her desire to explore the world unmatched.

“Daddy look!” became her favorite phrase when Chad carried her into the entrance hall of the castle, her eyes wide as she took in the detailed paintings and extravagant tapestries. 

Chad didn’t expect anyone to meet them as he himself rarely warranted the effort, but something about his two-year absence must have clicked with his father, because it didn’t take long for the man to stroll out to meet them – looking rumpled but sober, Captain Anozie forever half a step behind him. 

“Look, Bella,” Chad said, getting his daughter’s attention with a happy grin. “It’s your grandpa, King Christopher.”

“Gran-pa!” Bella cheered, waving a wild hand at his father’s gobsmacked expression. “Hi!”

“Hello, your highness,” Captain Anozie greeted, seeing as Chad’s father was frozen still. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Hi!” Bella merely echoed, pleased as punch to be the center of attention.

She really was her father’s daughter. 

“…a daughter,” Chad’s father eventually managed. “You…”

“A Celestial Blessing,” Chad said, managing an embarrassed flush that he and Fairy Godmother had been working on. “As a reward for my quest.”

“A…” The king blinked and then, surprise of all surprises, broke into the widest smile Chad had ever seen on him. “The mystic forces gifted you with a child?”

“Yes,” Chad said, allowing himself to boast as he held Bella closer. “Dad, this is your granddaughter – Princess Bellanca James. I call her Bella for short.”

“Bella!” Bella chirped, eagerly latching onto the part of the conversation she understood. 

The important part, as far as she was concerned.

“…Bella,” Chad’s father echoed, his eyes glistening with a sort of teary happiness Chad had never witnessed either, like he was so happy he could barely contain herself. “Oh, Kit – she’s perfect.”

That time, Chad’s blush was entirely genuine. “Um… thank you,” he said, feeling bashful but overwhelmingly proud all at once. “Would you like to hold her?”

“If um- she’s okay with it,” Chad’s father said, nervous but eager.

“Gran-pa!” Bella cheered, reaching out to him with grabby hands, and the king gratefully took her, his laugh wet but smile brilliant as he stared at her with a look of open wonder.

“Hello, Kitten,” he greeted, swaying gently in place. “Mind if I give you a tour?”

“I think that would be perfect, Dad,” Chad said, feeling closer to his father than he had in years, and maybe the king wasn’t the only one tearing up when they set off together, strolling through the familiar grounds with the most dedicated audience in the world.

Later, when Bella was investigating his mother’s garden with the determination of a general, Chad’s grandfather would join them. 

“A daughter,” he mused, keeping his tone perfectly neutral as Bella stopped to smell each of the flowers, deeming them adequate before moving on, Chad’s father taking a bounty of photos while Captain Anozie looked on with unashamed fondness. “Are you prepared for such a responsibility, Chadwick?”

It was a fair question, but such a critical, blunt thing that Chad couldn’t help but laugh. He loved his grandfather, but with distance, he had realized how much the man had been worn down by life – losing his wife and trying to hold his son together after he lost his. Perhaps Chad had done things the right way, hadn’t gotten attached at all before he had a child, and now he could dote on Bella, could parent her and support her the way he wished he’d been.

The Duke gave him a sharp look at Chad’s mirthful response, but Chad could only shake his head. “No one is prepared for such a responsibility,” Chad eventually offered. “But you’ll find that I am far more equipped to undertake such a task than you may have previously expected.”

For a moment the Duke said nothing, and then he let out a low _harrumph_. “I suppose this illuminates the reasoning for some of the requests you sent in before your arrival,” he declared, which was as close to approval as Chad was ever going to get. “No one is ever truly prepared for parenthood, but it would seem that you blossomed under the challenge.” A pause, then, “I hope this happiness will keep you for the rest of your life.”

“Me too,” Chad murmured, his heart swelling with a fondness so pointed he thought he might burst. “Now, come meet your great granddaughter. You will find that she’s a lot like you. She has very strong opinions on everything.”

“Ah,” the Duke mused. “Then I shall never have to doubt her character.”

“No,” Chad laughed. “I suppose you won’t.” 

-:-:-:-:-:-

It took a few weeks for news to spread about Chad’s Celestial Blessing, and a few weeks more for Sardinia to be allowed special exception to the magic ban because of it. That didn’t stop Chad from using his hard-won skills to set up Bella’s bedroom and unpack, sure to send photos to the message group he had set up with the proficient magic users he had befriended over the years. 

It likely helped that Chad wasted no time upon his return to step back into the spotlight to support Mal’s plans, offering his own outlines for the Auradon Council’s review for proper relief and rehabilitation programs, financial outlines and economic projections that he’d spent months researching and putting to paper so they could actually get things done. 

“ _A kid?_ ” was how Audrey chose to greet him when he’d accidentally accepted one of her calls, the princess likely bored on her enforced house arrest after going crazy and trying to take over half the kingdom. “ _You’ve spent three years in the middle of nowhere and came back with a **kid**? Chad, no one’s going to want to date you_.”

“Yeah, I’m cool with that,” Chad said absently, reviewing his latest suggestions and sending them off to Jane for her thoughts. “My kid’s the shit, Audrey.”

“ _You got fucking weird, Chad_ ,” Audrey said, like he was the one with issues, and it didn’t take long for the conversation to peter out because they were drastically different people now than they had been in high school.

“What about college?” Chad’s father asked when he watched Chad build a new workshop in the back gardens of Sardinia castle, expression awed and Bella’s giggles delighted when Chad waved his wand in intricate, decisive motions. “Are you going to attend?”

“Of course,” Chad assured him, brows furrowed in concentration. He had to get the roof right or Merryweather would give him shit about it for weeks. “Fairy Godmother would kill me if I didn’t, but I’m a prince, dad. Sometimes I can abuse that position to do things on my own terms.”

“What?” Chad’s father said while Captain Anozie swung Bella gently back and forth, the small princess giggling with delight.

“He’s going to pay the professors to come to him, Christopher,” the Duke said from his position settled on a stone bench. Every once and a while he’d look up from his book to take a picture of Bella, but other than that, he was undisturbed by Chad’s blatant use of magic. “Which, honestly, is the smart thing to do. Why drag things out over years when you can do it in an expeditious fashion?”

“Exactly,” Chad said, waving a hand in thanks. “I’ll finish up college in two years, actually attend law school for the next two and _bam_ , I can help you manage the load for Sardinia by the time Bella goes into Kindergarten.”

“You’re so… confident,” the king said, marveling at this.

Chad paused, really thought about it. “Yeah, I suppose I am now.”

He’d faked it, before, but he’d never really been certain. He’d been too needy, too desperate, but he didn’t need that now.

Now he had Bella, and he had to be strong for her. Brave for her.

It made all his past insecurities seem mostly laughable.

“I’m so happy for you, Kit,” the king whispered, not for the first time. “I… I’m so sorry-”

“Dad,” Chad interrupted, giving him a light smile. “It’s not okay, but I forgave you a long time ago. Just- if you wanna stay involved with Bella’s life, keep doing what you’re doing.”

They all knew the words Chad didn’t say. His father had to stay clean, had to keep away from the temptations of alcohol and had to keep taking his medication and going to therapy and maintaining his schedule. He could do it, for Bella.

It hurt a little, that he hadn’t been able to do it for Chad, but Chad was willing to take his father now rather than not at all.

“Okay,” the king said, looking between Chad and Bella and the Duke, looking at their small family contingent and hopefully feeling the same certain contentment that gripped Chad every time he thought about how lucky he was. “Okay.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

The next year passed in a flash, and then another, until Bella was five and Chad was twenty-two and they were receiving invitations to the birthday party of Evie’s twins, little cherubs that were just turning one, by the look of it. 

Chad’s family had bustled and grown in the meantime, at least by way of eccentric personalities. It had taken a few months for the workers of Sardinia castle to adjust to the constant flow of magic users that streamed in and out of Chad’s research workshop, but once they had, the figurative floodgates had been opened. Gardens overflowed with experimental greenery and alchemy was perfected and potions workshopped while enchanted metal was forged by a few grizzled dwarves of Hanover Merlin had brought with him one day. Each of these individuals was given a special pass that allowed them access to this space, and while it wasn’t exactly a secret, it wasn’t exactly talked about either. Sardinia was proud of its eccentric magic users, but equally protective as well with people still being wary of the magic ban that was slowly being lifted across the land. 

Sardinia was beginning to gain a reputation as a place for outcasts, a place for acceptance and peace, and it didn’t take long for Chad to start receiving Isle refugees as well, children with magical roots that had never been given the opportunity to study. This was how Aunt Tilly came to gain an apprentice by way of Ginny Gothel, and Merlin even more reluctant to accept the apprenticeship of one ‘Mad’ Maddy, and while they bickered continuously, it was clear the two had a fondness for each other. Yzla and Zevon, the children of Yzma, came in and declared themselves the heads of potion research, and Freddy and Celia Facilier were always sure to drop in from time-to-time to gossip with the other magic users Chad had unknowingly collected.

“Sure you don’t need a royal seer on staff?” Freddy would occasionally ask, fanning herself with her tarot cards.

“I’m comfortable with the future remaining a mystery,” Chad mused, watching Bella chase after a greatly put-upon Cedric the sorcerer, who smiled anytime he thought they weren’t looking. “But you’re always welcome to stay under a different profession, if you’d like. Or you could tell fortunes down in the square – as long as you stick to the light instead of the shadows.”

“Yeah,” Celia said, making a face. “Don’t think you can manage much with shadows here.”

“Nope,” Chad hummed. “Sardinia is a place of light.”

“And kindness,” Freddy noted, and where before that might have been a slight, now it was praise, because she had seen the wonder of what light could do. 

“That too,” Chad said. “You two will always have a place here, when you’re done traveling.”

“You know,” Freddy began, her lips pulling up in a smirk. “We might just take you up on that.”

“Good,” Chad said, giving her a smile so she knew he wasn’t lying. “I’m glad.”

And truthfully, he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter – the birthday party I mentioned but didn’t actually get to, lol.
> 
> Hey guys, thank you so much for the feedback! I’m sorry for the delayed posting, things have gotten kind of crazy over here. I lost power early Monday morning and didn’t get it back until today, and when I did retreat to somewhere with power, the internet went down. So this is the first substantial block of time I’ve been able to be online, and I just wanted to say thanks for all the lovely support!!! It was really nice to see after the week I’ve had. I really appreciate it, and I will be replying, assuming my internet doesn’t go down again, but I wanted to take this moment to reiterate my gratitude for our wonderful Descendants community <3 
> 
> The next update will come Sunday as scheduled, assuming I have power and internet. If they go down again, I’ll try to post as soon as I can :)
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> Do not ask me what kind of favor Fairy Godmother could have done for Genie to warrant his help because man, am I not going to think about it (even if the answer is probably like, she dealt with a lot of paperwork he didn’t want to do since she mostly does not practice magic, lol).
> 
> While I’ve never read them, I vaguely remember a Bella being part of the Twilight series. My Bella is better though, in my super biased opinion ;P
> 
> Aunt Tilly is from the animated show ‘Sophia the First’ and is basically a cheerful, Mary Poppins type character.
> 
> I have a personal headcanon that the whole ‘prince charming’ thing is more of a nickname than an actual title. I got the last name James from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical ‘Cinderella’, which lists off a frankly impressive lists of names for Chad’s father that end in ‘James’. Ergo, Chadwick James and Bellanca James ;D
> 
> I’m personally delighted at the thought of all the magic users being salty little shits to each other on a regular basis – the way eccentric, enthusiastic outcasts are. 
> 
> Hanover is my name for Snow White’s kingdom, because Charmington is stupid. 
> 
> Cedric the Sorcerer is from the show Sophia the First, and is generally a grumpy grump who has a soft spot for princesses.
> 
> Until next time :)


	3. The Party

“Okay, little miss,” Chad said, doing his best to seem stern and likely failing miserably as he and Bella were guided to the gardens of Hanover Castle. “You remember the rules, right?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Bella sighed, greatly put upon and obviously despairing for the world. “No cake until they cut it, I have to eat _some_ vegetables, ask before hugs, and try to use my indoor voice.” Her lips pulled into a pout, which made the fluffy party dress Fairy Godmother had picked out for her even more adorable. “Which is a dumb rule, since we’re going to be outside.”

“That is why I said _try_ ,” Chad offered, his voice soothing and horribly indulgent. “Not everyone is going to be prepared for your outside voice, so-”

“Use my best judgement,” Bella droned, fidgeting with the shimmery fabric of her skirt. “And I can’t play in the pond?”

“Absolutely not,” Chad said, forcing back a smile. “No dirty things in our party clothes. _And_ ,” he continued before she was about to interject. “No _taking off_ our party clothes.”

Bella stared up at the ceiling with immense aggravation, and Chad knew that their guide was smiling, but at least they would give the man a good story before he had to see to the rest of his duties. 

“ _Ugh_ ,” Bella groaned when she thought she had not properly expressed her displeasure. “What kind of party doesn’t let you play in ponds?”

“Boring, grown up parties,” Chad mused.

“I don’t ever want to grow up,” Bella declared while stomping her feet, her pink glitter flats doing little to emphasize her irritation.

“But if you don’t grow up, you can’t play Tourney,” Chad pointed out.

That drew Bella to a halt, her eyes going wide. “I can’t?” she considered this, then resumed walking, a definite skip in her step. “Okay, I guess I can grow up then. But at my parties we are definitely going to play in ponds.”

“If it’s your party, you get to make the rules,” Chad agreed, and that earned him a brilliant smile that carried them all the way out into the gardens. “Now,” Chad said when they approached the huddled groups of people, some of which he had not seen in six years. “We need to say hello to the hosts-”

“Jay!” Bella yelled in what was perhaps the most expected response ever, and Chad’s five-year-old wasted no time scrambling across the lawn before she could hurl herself at the legs of her most favorite professional Tourney player of all time.

By the time Chad caught up to her, Jay was staring at the sparkly-dressed barnacle he had acquired with wide eyes, Carlos choking quietly on his laughter beside him. 

“Jay!” Bella repeated, looking up at the Tourney player with an excited grin. “You’re here! My daddy said you used to be friends but I didn’t think he could be friends with someone as cool as you but you’re _here_!”

“Um…” Jay said, looking between Chad and Bella hopelessly. “Hello?”

“Hi!” Bella beamed, pleased to be given that much attention from her idol. “I’m Bella and my daddy and I watch _all_ your Tourney games because you’re the best player ever even if you don’t play for Sardinia, which-” She started tugging at Jay’s pants. “You should. You should play for Sardinia and then I could see your games in person way more often instead of just on tv.”

“Bella,” Chad interrupted quietly, deciding that Jay had weathered enough. “What did I say about hugging?”

“Um…” Bella looked up at him in concentration, Carlos slowly dying from quiet laughs beside them. “To ask first. Wait.” She looked back to Jay, then took a deliberate step back, holding her arms away from him. “May I hug you, Mr. Jay?”

Jay considered this proposal, but he was smiling now, easily charmed by the whiles of Bella. “Sure, kiddo. I’m always happy to meet a fan.”

“A _big_ fan!” Bella insisted, tackle hugging his leg once more. “That ruling they made in Maldonia was total _bubkis_ \- my daddy said so, and you should have been MVP of the year-”

“He can’t be MVP every year, Bella,” Chad reminded her gently.

His daughter made a face at him. “Yes, he can, he’s Jay.”

“So uh… your dad told you a lot about me?” Jay asked, carefully maintaining a conversation with a one-woman army in terms of conversational stamina.

“Yep!” Bella cheered. “He said the first time you practiced Tourney with him you threw him on the ground ‘cuz you’re so strong, and then you carried another guy to victory the first time you played and are a good teammate which, _obviously_ , because you’re the best.”

“Thank you,” Jay said with a laugh, making Bella’s grin even brighter. “I really appreciate that. And, you know, your dad was a good player too.”

“He was _not_ ,” Bella gushed, making Chad smile despite the fact that it was his capabilities that were being questioned. “Really? He wasn’t fibbing?”

“I don’t fib to you,” Chad insisted, that making him more wounded than anything else.

Bella gave him a distinct side-eye that she must have learned from Freddy. “You said if I asked Mr. Cedric more than five questions at a time he would cry, but I asked him six last time and he was just fine.”

“I said he would _probably_ cry,” Chad corrected, grinning at the way Carlos had collapsed against Jay’s shoulder, mirthful tears rolling down his face. “Probably.”

Bella narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t remember that.”

“Then you’ll have to take my word for it, because I’m your father.”

“ _Ugh_ ,” Bella groaned, flopping against Chad’s leg. “You always say that.”

“And somehow,” Chad mused. “It’s always true. Speaking of… what was the first thing we were supposed to do when we got here?”

“Not play in the pond?” Bella offered, making Jay laugh. And then- “Greet the hosts!”

Just like that, Bella was off like a lightning bolt, leaving Chad to scramble in her wake. He caught up just in time to see her latch onto Doug’s legs, making the future king of Hanover startle spectacularly, but fortunately he wasn’t holding one of his two children, so it all worked out fine.

“Hello, I’m Bella and-” Bella paused long enough to back away, still holding her arms wide. “Would you like a hug?!”

“Indoor voice, Bella,” Chad reminded her.

“ _Would you like a hug?_ ” Bella whispered, holding her arms out pointedly.

Doug (and now Evie, whose attention they had quickly gained) shifted into an easy smile. “I would be honored, Bella.”

“Thank you!” Bella chirped, swamping Doug’s legs again before repeating the process on Evie. 

Eventually, she discovered a group of other children brought in by various nobles and party goers that she struck out to play with in a bubbly fashion, and Chad contented himself watching her antics when Jay ambled up beside him.

“So,” Jay began carefully, a smile on his lips but his tone neutral. “Fatherhood looks good on you.”

“Thank you.” Chad grinned, feeling relaxed and sated, his smile widening when Evie moved over to join them. “I just… I know how lucky I am. I try not to take that for granted.”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have expected it from you,” Evie said, her voice gentle. “But watching you with her… you’re a great father, Chad.”

At that, Chad allowed himself to duck his head, feeling a blush spread across his cheeks. “Thank you, Evie. And thank you for the invitation.” He knew it was likely out of obligation with Sardinia being a neighboring kingdom to Hanover, but still, it meant a lot. “And I know this is about six years too late, but I’m sorry for how I treated you in high school. There’s no forgiving it really, but I… I really wanted to fit in.”

Evie blinked, as though surprised by the offering, before a pleased grin spread across her face. “Thank you, Chad,” she murmured. “That means a lot. I… we were all trying so hard for things, back then. We all had our struggles.” She looked at Chad, _really_ looked at him, before she reached out, squeezing his shoulder. “I’d like to try and be friends now, if you’re interested. Maybe trade parenting tips?”

Chad’s shoulders sagged with relief. “I’d be honored,” he replied. “And I’m always happy to commiserate with a fellow parent.”

“I’m glad,” Evie hummed, and she even seemed to mean it. “I’ll head off, then. Let you two talk about some things.”

“That sounds ominous,” Chad noted as the princess slipped away, trying to ignore how Jay’s shoulders seemed to tense.

“Well…” Jay began, swallowing hard. “It’s just… you left right after…”

Chad forced himself to make a show of scrambling to remember what Jay could be referring to. “Oh, that? Yeah, don’t worry about it.” 

This seemed to throw Jay off balance, the other man gripping his punch cup a little bit tighter. “Um,” he said, unsettled with this. “It was sort of an awful thing, Chad. And it was mostly my fault.”

“Jay-”

“I did some research,” Jay interrupted, his expression hard. “That stuff we were tangled in? It was Wishing Greens. And I made that stupid comment-”

“ _Jay_.” Chad turned, bracing an arm on the other man’s bicep, wondering how long Jay had carried this with him. “It’s okay. I’m fine. I came to terms with what happened and yeah, it wasn’t great, but…” He trailed off, forcing himself not to look at Bella, who was laughing in the distance. “It happened. And it wasn’t my fault. And it wasn’t _your_ fault.”

“But-”

“Jay,” Chad kept his voice steady, relentless. “You didn’t know. I’m not going to be upset with something that was an accident. If it really means that much to you, I forgive you, but it isn’t a forgiveness that’s needed.”

“I…” Jay shifted his weight, looking stubbornly down at the ground before turning to face Chad with painfully earnest eyes. “I’m just so sorry-”

“And it’s okay,” Chad repeated. “You can forgive yourself, now. I do.”

Jay looked at him, a careful evaluation, as though seeing Chad for the first time. “You changed,” he sniffed, breaking eye contact with a toss of his head. “For the better, I mean.” He made a face. “That sounded better in my head. I meant-”

“We’re not dumb kids anymore?” Chad offered.

It made Jay laugh. “Yeah,” he admitted. “And um- fatherhood really has done you good.”

The sun caught his face when he said this, revealing a light flush against his cheeks likely spurred by heat, but in it, Chad remembered all the reasons why he had stared at Jay so much at Auradon Prep, why he convinced his daughter to root for him while making no effort to meet the player before now.

It was a dumb, teenage whim. It would pass, he knew, but still.

In that moment, he felt young again. 

Well, younger.

“Hey, team,” a lazy voice drawled, and that was all the warning they got before the Queen of Auradon joined their huddle, Mal looking especially prim in her purple sundress. “You guys watching the munchkins?”

“Mostly hoping my munchkin doesn’t start a revolution,” Chad answered honestly. “She has strong feelings about playing in ponds.”

“She is wild,” Jay mused, turning his attention back to Bella, who seemed to be in the middle of some sort of hybrid game of tag that involved a lot of waving. “Makes me wonder where she gets it from.”

“Yep,” Chad drawled, blatantly ignoring what Jay was hinting at. “Me too.”

It was only the same question everyone else had – who Bella’s other parent was. While Chad had confirmed that he knew, he had never said who it was aloud, and Fairy Godmother hadn’t either. 

“I like her,” Mal declared, taking a vicious sip of her punch. “It’s good that you’ve got a kid with some spunk.”

She swayed ever so slightly, but Chad had enough experience with his father to add together the little pieces until he had the completed picture.

“Mal,” Chad began, pitching his voice low. “Are you drunk?”

Jay tensed, but Mal only frowned, giving Chad a bleary look of irritation. “What are you, the police?”

“Nope,” Chad said. “Just a prince at a birthday party for your best friend’s children.”

Mal wavered a moment, the cursed. “Fucking _shit_.”

Jay let out a pained sound. “Mal-”

“I’m fine,” she hissed, frowning down at the cup of punch that she had privately spiked, Chad hoped. “It’s fine.”

“Okay,” Chad said, because there was no point in arguing it now. “Jay, could you watch Bella, please?”

“Um.” Jay obviously wasn’t comfortable with this. “Maybe I should…”

“I’m going to help Mal sober up,” Chad murmured, keeping his voice low. “And then we’re going to come back, and no one’s going to know about this.”

Jay wavered a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

With that, he handed off his own empty cup to one of the waiters and jogged over to the kids, immediately earning the interest of Bella who giggled with delight when Jay scooped her into the air.

“Fucking kids,” Mal hissed, but Chad ignored this, deftly disposing of her cup before gently tugging her deeper into the garden, off in the direction of King Erik’s memorial fountain. It was a place of reverence, rarely visited on festive occasions, which was all that Chad needed for the moment. 

“Don’t- don’t know why you think you can help,” Mal grumbled when he set her down on the edge of the fountain. “You can’t- you’re not supposed to do anything but you- all your proposals and speeches and-” She squinted when he summoned his wand, had enough time to pause before he cast a quick detox spell that would leave her coherent but with a headache (of warning), and then she was squinting against the light with a scowl.

“Fucking shit, man,” she hissed, digging through her tiny purse until she emerged with a pair of sunglasses. “What the fuck?”

“I think I should ask you that,” Chad said when he waved away his wand. “Why were you drunk?”

“I don’t owe you an explanation, Charming,” Mal hissed when she forced herself to her feet. “But if I did, don’t you- I mean, all these kids and shit- even _you_ have one and you don’t have a queen, and you’re like, the happiest person in all of existence.” 

With that, Mal began stomping away, back towards the party.

Chad followed at a more sedate pace. “Mal…”

“Fucking _not you too_ ,” she hissed, keeping her disposition calm through habit, but her fingers seemed to twitch against her side. “…so maybe Ben and I are having trouble conceiving.”

Chad froze, because that was big news, and Mal froze too, her head hung. Miserable.

“Well,” Mal continued. “I guess Ben isn’t having trouble so much as I am.” She scuffed the toe of her purple heel into the dirt. “Guess my eggs aren’t as good as we thought they were.”

“Mal-” Chad said, feeling suddenly out of his depth for the first time in a while.

“Just.” Mal shook her head. “How did you do it? What did you do to get a Celestial Gift? Do you think-” She swallowed, her eyes shining with moisture. “Ben and I- at least Ben has done so much, so what did you do to warrant a kid, huh? And can we… how can we do it too? We just-” She swallowed again, taking a deep breath to calm herself before shoving her sunglasses into place. “We just want a kid,” she murmured. “Everyone else is having kids, and I can’t give him shit.”

“That’s not your fault, Mal,” Chad said, trying to sooth her. “These things take time-”

“I’ve been trying for years, Chad,” Mal said, her voice low, hard. “Ever since you got back, I started trying. It hasn’t… nothing’s worked.”

They stood there at an impasse, Chad aching because he couldn’t help her, didn’t know how without revealing his secret, and Mal was wavering and lost, guilty over something that was never her fault in the first place.

“I… I can put my workshop on it, if you want,” Chad offered, scrambling to think of a solution.

“No,” Mal laughed. “It was stupid to think that you’d tell me. I mean, you haven’t told anyone-”

“It’s a secret, Mal,” Chad sighed. “For good reason.”

“Maybe,” Mal said, and then she was walking away, posture strong and demanding, as though she’d never broken down at all.

Chad wondered how many times she had gone on like this, how many times she had forced herself to recover, then turned to go find his child.

He couldn’t save everyone. Sometimes you could only save yourself.

Chad knew that better than most.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad made his way back to the party at a sedate pace, shaken from the knowledge he never should have obtained. In hindsight, Mal’s predicament was obvious. With all of their classmates finally settling down and starting families as they moved on to the next chapter of their lives, it was only natural for Mal to want to do the same. Part of Chad ached for Mal, for her blatant want and frustration that must kindle from perceived inadequacies. It wasn’t her fault, truly, there were hundreds of things that could have left her struggling to conceive – from her own half-Fae blood to the remnants of Ben’s beast curse to stress to timing, and even if she’d been fighting for years, that was no guarantee that she couldn’t conceive at all.

It was almost funny in a way – Chad, who never should have been able to get pregnant – had stumbled upon his own happy ending entirely by accident, and while it had been difficult, he couldn’t be anything but pleased with how things had turned out.

His gaze drifted over the party when he returned, the prince pausing to pass small talk with old acquaintances until he could get back to where Bella was holding court with Jay, the muscular Tourney player at the princess’s beck and call, which didn’t establish the greatest of precedents, but Chad admitted that it did make a lovely picture. 

Chad paused long enough to snap a photo of Jay swinging Chad’s daughter by her arms, her mouth parted wide to allow for squeals of delight to spill from her throat that warmed Chad down to his bones, circumventing the cold Mal had left with her bitterness. There was no way to miss how Jay perked up upon his return; though that was likely out of a desire for information or to be relieved of the small exuberant princess who seemed happy to cling to him than it was for Chad himself, though that small curl of want that stubbornly stuck with him from high school longed for something more.

“Okay, little bit,” Jay said, setting Bella down to a chorus of giggles. “Off with you. I gotta talk to your dad.” When it looked like Bella was going to object (she had gotten time with her idol, there was no way she’d willingly let that go), Jay added, “The other kiddoes will get jealous.”

“Fine,” Bella groaned, her head falling back in a familiar show of exasperation.

She must have learned that from Merryweather. She certainly hadn’t from _Chad_.

Chad cleared his throat, regaining his daughter’s attention. “What are the magic words, Bella?”

Immediately, his child perked up, satisfied with a question that was easy to answer. “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!”

Chad winced, but Jay was laughing, a full-bellied thing that seemed to trap Chad from inside out, like unfortunate music to his ears.

“The _other_ magic words,” Chad reminded her gently.

“Oh.” Bella blinked, her brows furrowed in concentration as she struggled to remember what those could be. “Thank you, Mr. Jay!”

“You’re welcome, kidlet,” Jay said when she threw herself at Jay’s legs one last time, giving him a tight hug before she scampered off, back towards the herds of other children.

“It seems you’ve made a friend for life,” Chad noted, grinning at his daughter’s enthusiastic reintroduction to the other kids.

“She’s a fiery one,” Jay said, grinning brightly. “So I certainly don’t mind.”

“Thank you,” Chad murmured, swamped by a genuine sort of gratitude. “She really looks up to you.”

“It’s the last thing I would have expected,” Jay admitted, his eyes tracking Bella’s progress in her attempts to ask permission for hugs and high fives in turn. “Your kid being a fan of me.”

“Why?” Chad asked, genuinely curious. “You’re very talented.”

Jay offered him a dry look. “I’m the son of Jafar.”

“And a hero of Auardon,” Chad reminded him thoughtfully. “Do people still hold that against you?”

Jay’s face did a complicated thing, his weight shifting uneasily as he pointedly averted his gaze. “Not so much,” he admitted. “I mean, but with the way things ended between us-”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad sighed, wanting to allow his head to flop back in despair much like his daughter’s would have. “I was an insecure teenager. Forget the way I treated you then. I was wrong.” After a beat, he added, “And what happened wasn’t your fault.”

It was a conversation they’d already had, but luckily Jay chose to focus on the first part of Chad’s statement. “You were insecure?”

“Oh, yeah,” Chad said, the words coming easily enough. “I was super lonely back then. My dad was… struggling,” he settled on. “I didn’t really have any family support, so my image was everything to me.”

The need to be good. The strive to be perfect and if he couldn’t do that, to at least follow the rules. At least allow for no ammunition to be turned against him, labeling him as vile. 

If that had happened, Chad wasn’t sure what his teenage self would have done. His father ignored him even when he was good, if he was perceivably bad-

Well, it had worked out in the end. Chad had gotten Bella and his father had cleaned up, had reengaged with life, casually talking to the other kings he had befriended once before, trading corny jokes with Captain Anozie and always eager to kidnap Bella for a day to spoil her rotten. It was the workings of a man Chad barely remembered, and it hurt sometimes to think of the way his father must have been when Chad’s mother was still around, what they could have done together had they been allowed the chance.

He wondered if his mother would have loved Bella as much as Chad did, if she would have held it against him, the way she was conceived.

He was pretty sure she wouldn’t have.

Jay was quiet for a moment, seeming to mull that over. “I wouldn’t have known,” he admitted.

“That was the point,” Chad said with a shrug.

He was desperate to make it seem effortless, for them to never see the way he panicked and shook. Even Doug, Chad’s roommate, hadn’t been aware of the extent of Chad’s neurosis, had likely thought the blond was uncharacteristically neat due to his compulsions and little else. The breakdowns Chad always had in the shower or his closet. Someplace safe where no one could judge him – his own criticisms were already so harsh. 

This did not seem to be an acceptable explanation to Jay, who made another face. “I should have.”

“How?” Chad pressed. It seemed like such an odd thing to get worked up about. “You were still new to Auradon, still getting used to our ways. We barely knew each other for four months before I left on my quest.”

“I know loneliness,” was what Jay settled on. “I should have seen it, is all.” After a beat, he added, “I would have understood you better.”

“It’s in the past,” Chad hummed. “No point in holding onto it.”

“No,” Jay sighed. “I guess you’re right.” He let out a wry chuckle. “When did you get so wise?”

“In the Outerlands, I guess,” Chad admitted. 

It was the closest he could get to absolute honesty. He had learned a lot from raising Bella those early years, training himself in magic and school and politics, taking a break from the persona of Chadwick James and getting an opportunity to just be himself. Discover himself.

Those three years taught him a lot.

Jay’s smile went tense, then seemed to fade completely. “Mal’s very interested in that, you know. She wanted to ask you some questions.” His throat bobbed in a swallow, and Chad had to fight not to stare at the elegant line of Jay’s neck. “Some might say she’s obsessed.”

“Would you?” Chad asked, because he didn’t really care about the opinion of the majority. The people who mattered were the ones close to Mal – the rest of the Core Four that closed ranks tight for her protection. The only ones who came close to that aside from Ben were Uma and her two husbands.

“Yes,” Jay admitted, making a face like he’d swallowed something sour. “How is she?”

“Good now,” Chad answered honestly. “A little magic and all she has left is a lingering headache.”

“Huh,” Jay mused, tone rough. “So you’ve got magic, too?”

“Had to do something in the Outerlands,” Chad said, earning an interested look from Jay. 

It wasn’t real interest, of course. It was for Mal, Jay’s family, and while Chad respected that, he wished the dumb magnetism that seemed to draw him close to Jay would stop hoping for something deeper.

So he changed the subject as soon as he could, keeping his voice low. “Did you know that she was struggling to get pregnant?”

Tension, and then Jay’s entire disposition seemed to hunch in on itself. “I’d suspected,” he admitted. “Well, Evie suspected, but we’d been hoping…” He sighed. “That’s why she’s so interested in your Celestial Blessing.”

“It’s worth being envious of,” Chad said, more truthful than cruel, because he couldn’t help but look at this daughter and be filled with a relentless sort of awe that she got to be his. 

He knew, distantly, that he should feel a little guilty for keeping the information from Ben, for not telling Jay the entire truth, but Ben… he had everything. He had a whole family and every kingdom in Auradon and a bounty of friends and Mal. Chad was still working to catch up with him, though he was getting there, with his workshop and wounded family and eccentric adopted relatives and fondly claimed colleagues in the new world of magic he was exposed to. Chad was far from a master, but he held his own, and that replaced his false confidence with something sterner, something real, enough that Chad could look forward to his bout as king with certainty instead of terror.

Chad supposed Ben deserved to know he had a daughter, but Bella was more Chad’s than she would ever be Ben’s. Chad was the one who had carried her, was the one who had been ravished and forgotten. He was the one who raised her by choice, and that was a challenge Ben didn’t need. Even if Mal struggled to get pregnant, there were other options for her. Chad would make other options for her, because Bella was his, and he wasn’t going to lose her.

“Yeah,” Jay admitted, a small smile tugging at his lips. “She is.”

For a long moment, neither of them said anything.

“Don’t let it get to you,” Jay offered. At Chad’s inquisitive look, he clarified, “She’s jealous, but you… you deserve what you got.”

He couldn’t know what he was implying. Because he said these words and Chad thought of panicked moments trapped in a dark jungle, of being violated by plants while Jay helplessly watched. He thought of the deep pit of despair that welled inside him when Fairy Godmother had said he was pregnant. He thought of swollen ankles and pain that settled in his bones no matter how he rested, he thought of lonely moments and dwindling panic attacks and crying from lack of sleep as he – a teenager – tried to comfort a howling baby. 

And maybe Chad deserved that, but he also deserved the sunshine presence that was his daughter’s smile, he deserved mischievous grins and _‘I love you, daddy’s_ ’ and determined requests for hugs and cuddles and scampering feet that crawled into his bed at six in the morning. 

“You wouldn’t know,” Chad pointed out, though he was smiling. Jay didn’t know him, not really. Few did. “But I appreciate the sentiment.” 

“I’m trying to defend you, asshole,” Jay said, though he was also smiling, a bright thing that struck at Chad’s stomach. “You really _are_ different.”

“I’d hope we all are,” Chad mused. “If we hadn’t grown since high school, it would be a sad world indeed.”

“Sure,” Jay hummed. “You’re right, of course. I… I’m glad I got to meet you. This version of you. And Bella, of course.”

“Of course,” Chad agreed with a laugh. “I’m glad I got to re-meet you too, Jay. And if you don’t mind it too terribly much…”

“I’ll autograph some stuff for you,” Jay said, pretending to be reluctant but a tried-and-true smile tugging at his lips. “Anything for my biggest fan, apparently.”

“We have foam fingers and everything,” Chad hummed. “We wear the for every game.”

Jay quirked a brow at him. “Even the ones you watch at home?”

“ _Every game_ ,” Chad repeated, earning a delightful laugh from Jay.

It was the best recovery after the tense conversation with Mal, and Chad held onto it. He had learned in time to savor the small things, to hoard them like a greedy dragon, because there was no sense in letting them go. During the hard times, you had to cling to the gifts that life offered, or else get lost in the sea of banal unpleasantries that threatened to crash across your perception.

“I’ll remember that the next time I give a post-game interview.”

“Remember that the next time Sardinia offers you a contract,” Chad countered, savoring the next bout of laughter, the sunny afternoon, his daughter safe and whole.

It was all he could want. It was more than he deserved.

Without question, he would revel in it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

It probably surprised Chad more than anyone else that he ended up spending the rest of the party in Jay’s company. Well, no one else would bother the effort to care about what Chad did, he supposed, no one aside from Mal, but he couldn’t help his constant amazement when Jay seemed content to trade light conversation with Chad, covering topics that ranged from Jay’s training camps to Chad’s proposals to help with the magic ban to Bella to everything in between. 

It was more time than they had ever spent together back in school, when Chad had been haughty and Jay rough around the edges, both of them too concerned with their image to manage the vulnerability of a true connection. Now they were both substantially more apathetic towards the public’s regard and totally comfortable with themselves, meaning they could trade lazy barbs while covering deep, complicated issues without having to overthink it too much.

It was a dangerous thing, Chad knew. He had the fortune of gaining many friends since his quest, but Jay was always, despite his best efforts, and outlier, and who knew if Chad would be able to restrain himself should things progress where they shouldn’t. No matter what Jay said, Chad would likely always be that whiny prince to him, and it would be foolish to hope for more than that.

“Your highness,” one of the younger nobles of Hanover cooed, twisting a soft curl around her finger as she stared Chad down with a grin that was more predatory than congenial. “Your daughter’s a real treat.”

That was a lie, as Chad had spent the five minutes previous sprinting to intercept his daughter just before she gave up on the rules completely and cannonballed into the pond, the young princess taking this defeat with as much grace as a pouting Chihuahua – which was to say, with none. 

Jay, being _Jay_ , had managed to win her over with a ruffle of her hair and a deft redirect towards the birthday kiddoes, and now Bella was eagerly cooing over Jane’s shoulder, making faces that Carlos was definitely capturing on his phone.

“Thank you,” Chad grinned, pretending to be oblivious to the way the woman slunk close to his side. This wasn’t the first person who had hit on him at this party, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. “I greatly appreciate it.”

“You should,” the woman pressed, her hand straying dangerously close to Chad’s bicep. 

Chad wasn’t sure what about single parenthood made him so attractive, but he had the lingering suspicion it had to do with the fact that anyone Chad married now wouldn’t be pressured to provide an heir. As such, he was an appealing prospect, royalty with minor strings, or maybe he did seem more appetizing as a mate now that he’d demonstrated his more or less successful bouts with parenting.

“It’s a shame she doesn’t have a mother, though,” the woman continued. “A sweet girl like that needs a maternal influence.”

“I dunno,” Jay said, slinking into the conversation by wrapping an arm around Chad’s neck, pulling the prince close until he was comfortably flush against his side. “I think his royal highness is doing pretty okay myself.”

“Thanks, Jay,” Chad said, and just like the other three times this had happened, the woman found an immediate excuse to make a tactful retreat. Chad’s shoulders slumped with relief when she was finally gone. “Seriously, _thank you_.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jay soothed, keeping his arm where it was. “Does that happen often?”

“All the time,” Chad sighed. “People see Bella and think they can get an in with me if they treat her right, but I have little patience for those that would treat my daughter like a pawn to further their own agenda.”

Jay didn’t say anything for a moment, his face tensing in an unreadable way. Then he slid into a familiar smile, like nothing happened at all. “Well, fuck those guys. They should appreciate Bella for her own merits.”

Across the garden, Bella had abandoned the birthday kids to lead the charge in what Chad assumed was a game of knights and dragons, bellowing at the top of her lungs while a boy in pirate-esque clothing followed along behind her, a dark-skinned girl perched safely on his back, blinking at the world with wide eyes and a bright smile. Uma’s lot, then. 

“You’ll have to forgive me for being horribly biased,” Chad admitted, knowing his smile was nothing less than enchanted.

“No apologies are necessary for that, my friend,” Jay said, giving his neck a squeeze. 

From that point onward, Jay made an effort to scare off any of Chad’s would-be suitors, always maintaining some sort of casual contact with Chad. It was all friendly, of course, a show of commitment to their new attempt at friendship, but Chad couldn’t help but savor it, feeling relaxed in a way he never really got to be when it came to public events.

“Hey, Lonnie,” Chad greeted when the bubbly Imperial City woman edged carefully into their huddle. Jay’s hand was settled on the back of Chad’s neck, and from anyone else it would seem threatening, but in that instant, Chad could only feel grounded. Maybe that was the point. “How are you doing? Still setting records in the honors curriculum?”

“You know it,” Lonnie grinned, brightening up when she realized Chad had kept tabs on her. “Social work, here I come!”

“And you’re leading the Swords and Shields team too, right?” Auradon College was thriving under Lonnie’s determined blade, not that Chad would ever say as much aloud, forever faithful to his Sardinian institutions.

“Yep,” Lonnie chirped. “We won the grand championship last year. Trying to go for another one, but with the Olympics coming up…”

“You’ll be representing Imperial City?”

“Of course,” she said with a smirk. “Will you be fighting for Sardinia?”

“Depends how desperate we get, I think,” Chad said, getting a few chuckles. “And um… are you two still…”

He trailed off, hoping the pointed silence would indicate his question easily enough, and after a moment Jay blushed, seeming embarrassed on Chad’s behalf while Lonnie let out a bellowing laugh.

“Oh, _fuck_ no,” Lonnie cackled. “I can’t keep up with this shithead. I’ll leave that to you.”

She left them with a flutter of her fingers after that, leaving Chad to ponder what exactly she had meant.

“She’d leave what to me?” Chad asked, desperately confused, and Jay was no help to him, seeming even more embarrassed for some reason.

Well, Chad guessed it was probably obvious. He was always good at missing social cues. 

Eventually, he and Jay ended up trading small talk with Ben, as was inevitable at any royal function. Chad was worried that it might be weird – for all that he submitted proposals and argued reform and encouraged magic exploration, he didn’t actually have to interact with Ben directly, didn’t have to consider the weight of his guilt at keeping his magical child a secret from the man – but Ben was Ben, and therefore easily agreeable, so it wasn’t strained at all. 

“Your kid’s the talk of the party,” Ben mused, watching Bella and the young pirates-turned-explorers-turned-Isle-rights-activists’ children’s friendship blossom over stolen cupcakes and veggie cups that weren’t hidden nearly as well as Bella thought they were. “She reminds me of us when we were younger.”

“Simpler times,” Chad mused, though it had been Ben who was wild and determined, filled with beast spirit and dragging a bashful Chad in his wake. 

“I can’t wait to have a kid,” Ben said, his lips tugging in a bright smile that was free of worry, his cheer so strong he completely missed the tension that grabbed onto Jay’s shoulders. “I know we’re young, but Mal and I have been trying and…” He trailed off with a contented sigh. “We’ll get there. I know we will. I just can’t wait for it.”

“Well,” Chad picked up so Jay wouldn’t have to, his throat feeling uncomfortably tight. “Let me know when it happens. I have a list of suggestions for you.”

Starting with don’t let your kid’s extended family be entirely magic users, because then they’ll have no normal base-of-reference for anything, the poor schmucks. Chad was still working on that with Bella. It was a process. 

“And I’ll be happy to hear them,” Ben chirped, somehow managing to commit to even his happiness with a brilliance that could not be rivaled. 

It wasn’t fair, but few things were, with Ben.

“What are we talking about?” Mal drawled when she strolled into the group, giving the arm Jay had lazily wrapped around Chad’s shoulder a dubious look over the top of her sunglasses. 

“Bella,” Chad said before Ben could stumble into something accidentally devastating. “I think she’s befriended Uma’s lot.”

“That works out for you,” Jay said, eager to change the subject. “Since Uma’s been wanting to check out that workshop of yours. They’ll definitely be around.”

“Good,” Chad sighed. “I can only take so many playdates falling through because people realize that wild banshee is the princess.”

“Be nice,” Ben laughed. “Bella seems like a good kid.”

“Excuse you, she is a _wonderful_ kid,” Chad countered. “But I try to be realistic, and-”

He cut off when the lady-in-question trotted her way over to them, frosting smeared on her lips and sweat beaded on her brow, her curls in a wild disarray that spilled out of the half braid Chad had coerced her into that morning.

“Daddy,” she said, tugging at Chad’s sleeve with an earnest look. “I ate all my vegetables.”

“Did you?” Chad hummed, giving her an indulgent look. “Because I think you might be mistaken.”

“ _Daddy_.” She placed a wounded hand against her chest, play acting in a manner that could have only come from Chad’s father himself, who was actually quite goofy when he wasn’t depressed. “Do you think I’m _fibbing_?”

“I don’t know,” Chad mused. “If I look under that bush over there, will I find two abandoned veggie cups?”

There was a pointed standoff, which was hard when Bella’s eyes were so brilliantly hazel, and her brow so stubbornly set.

Eventually, she sighed. “I told Harmon Gad it wouldn’t work.”

“Was that before or after you told him it was bad to fib?”

“… _before_ ,” she grumbled, kicking her feet.

Chad shifted into a crouch so that they were at eye level. “You know I only want you to eat your veggies so that you can grow up big and strong, like Jay.”

“Really?” Bella’s look was unjustly suspicious, her eyes slanting over towards Jay for verification.

Jay nodded, his grin wide. “Oh yeah. I have to eat all kinds of healthy things to stay in shape.”

“I wished they tasted better,” Bella grumbled, but she was nodding, consenting to their wisdom. “Okay, I’ll make sure we eat our veggies for real this time, and-” She stopped suddenly, her eyes cutting to Mal with unwavering focus. “Do you want a warm hug?”

Mal, who had been growing more annoyed over the course of the exchange for all that she tried to hide it, jolted, surprised by the sudden focus. “What?”

“You seem sad,” Bella continued, holding her arms wide. “Would you like a hug?”

For a moment, there was an intense stare down. Chad could have told Mal it was useless, for all that Bella was a child, when she made a hugging offer, it was serious business. Chad had worried when she was younger, about the way Bella seemed oddly attuned to people’s emotions. It was never a consistent thing, but when it clicked, she was relentless. Fairy Godmother theorized it was a result of her unique conception, but truth be told, none of them really knew why Bella was the way she was. They just accepted her – enthusiasm and quirks and all. 

It took a few seconds for Mal to waver, and then she sighed, shifting into a crouch and holding out her arms obligingly. 

She was almost bowled over by the force of Bella’s response, the young princess throwing herself into Mal, squeezing her as tight as her small limbs would allow.

“ _There_ ,” Bella groaned through the act, pulling back with a brilliant grin. “Come on, we should go walking.”

Chad sighed. “Magic words, Bella.”

“Um…” She furrowed her brows. “Bibbidi Bobbidi _please_.”

Well, she got part of it right. 

Mal considered the sticky hand that was offered to her with respectable dubiousness, and Chad was in the middle of retrieving a handkerchief to put his hellion in some kind of order when Mal accepted her hand with a nod.

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s walk.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” Bella gushed, like Mal was doing her the biggest favor. “I need lady time. My family has so many boys.”

“Poor dear,” Mal soothed, her smile shifting into something more genuine, and the two of them began to walk the garden path, Bella talking to Mal at an animated pace while the queen indulged her.

When Chad managed to tear his gaze away from the sight, he looked at Ben, which might have been a mistake. There was no hiding the blatant adoration in Ben’s gaze, a look of longing and fondness all in one. It was the expression of someone seeing something they’d been waiting a long time for, a vision of the future, and both Chad and Jay felt uneasy in its wake. 

Jay cleared his throat, his discomfort completely missed by the king of Auradon. “Those are some pretty kickass ladies.”

“Yeah,” Ben sighed, totally smitten. “They really are.”

His approval made something twist in Chad’s gut, something awfully close to fear, bordering on the panic attacks Chad had managed to work through years ago. This wasn’t a vision of the future, because Bella was Chad’s, and no matter how many people charmed her or made her laugh or offered her cupcakes, they would never be her family.

It was fine. 

And there was no need to question that.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Later, when the cake was cut and the presents had been opened and Evie and Doug had made a tactful retreat to put their kiddoes down for a well-deserved nap, Chad would part from the crowds of people exchanging prolonged goodbyes to collect his exhausted monkey, who more or less passed out on him the moment he gathered her into his arms.

Bella was a deadweight, her head pillowed on Chad’s shoulder, body limp when he cradled her against his front, strolling through the crisp air conditioning of Hanover Castle before he would make his way out towards the car circle, prepared to update his father on the car ride home while Bella slept off her sugar high. 

“Leaving?” Jay asked, falling in step with Chad like it was the most natural thing in the world, his dark red blazer looking unfairly slick compared to Chad’s outfit, which was likely wrinkled and splattered with a sticky substance of unknown origin. The hazards of being a parent. “Could I walk you out?”

“By all means,” Chad hummed, feeling something close to contentment. He had already gotten so much of Jay that afternoon, it was weird to think he’d be allowed more, that the other man would long for it. Chad didn’t know what to say to him, if he should try to offer thanks or make snarky jokes or pass small talk until he got into his car, until Jay disappeared out of his life again, just like he had before. 

Jay didn’t seem to know what to say either, though his posture was relaxed. “Some party, huh?” he mused, his elbow brushing against Chad’s arm. “I’m not surprised. By Evie, I mean. We always knew she’d make a good mother. She wanted to make up for what she had, I think. Give what she wished she’d gotten.” He was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. “Sometimes I thought she wanted to be a mom more than a queen.”

“They’re both rewarding,” Chad offered. “But parenting feels like a more personal achievement.”

They were both valid, though. Both important.

“I’d imagine so,” Jay said, voice trailing off in a fond chuckle. 

They were getting closer to the doors, now. Soon Chad would be outside, waiting for his chauffeur to bring up the car, and the little bubble of whatever that had fallen over them would disappear again. He tried not to mourn this, because he already had so much, but then Jay was pulling him to a stop.

“Hey,” Jay said, his face shifting into a neutral sort of consideration. “I um… I’m gonna do something dumb, I think.”

“You are?” Chad couldn’t imagine why he’d be telling Chad this. “What-?”

His breath caught when Jay lifted a hand to cup Chad’s cheek, exhibiting a foreign sort of tenderness that made Chad shiver. Despite his intimate relations with Ben, Chad had never actually been kissed, but he was pretty sure that was what was happening, Jay’s gaze darting from his eyes to his lips before he finally leaned forward, angling their mouths together for a deep kiss. 

Chad tried not to whine. He wasn’t sure he was entirely successful, but whatever noise he made seemed to spur Jay on, the other man bracing a hand against his shoulder as they traded slow, heated kisses. 

By the time they pulled apart, they were both panting, Chad certain that his cheeks were heated in a furious blush. 

“I…” He swallowed, trying hard to compose himself, to accept that Jay had just kissed him. “I um… don’t think that was dumb.”

“Oh?” Jay said, cheeks tinged with happiness as his lips pulled back in a grin. “You don’t?” He drifted forward, back into Chad’s personal space, his hand sinfully complete against Chad’s jaw. “Shall I do it again?”

“Please,” Chad said, embarrassed at his eagerness but grateful for the attention it earned him, Jay’s fingers tangling in Chad’s curls so he could tilt the prince’s head exactly where he wanted it.

That time when they pulled away, Chad was a bit more desensitized, had managed to find his sea legs long enough for reason to set in.

“Jay, I can’t-” Chad gasped, watching how the other man’s posture tensed. “I can’t do um- casual flings. Not- not with Bella.”

“Oh.” Jay blinked, then relaxed again, ducking forward to press a chaste kiss against Chad’s mouth. “Good,” he said when he pulled back. “I don’t want casual.”

“Oh.” Chad actually hadn’t thought they’d get that far, to be honest. He thought maybe Jay would entertain himself with a passing fancy and then go on with his life.

“Yeah,” Jay chuckled. “‘Oh’, indeed. So…” He took a moment to look Chad over, as though he was savoring the experience. “Could I get your number from Jane?”

“Yes, yes,” Chad murmured, almost distractedly. “Um…”

“I’ll be in Sardinia next week,” Jay said. “We’re playing your team. Could I visit you in my downtime?”

“Absolutely,” Chad said, hoping he didn’t come off as too eager, but then Jay smiled so he figured it was probably alright. “I’ll- I’ll text you-”

“Chad,” Jay interrupted, grounding and firm. “I want this.”

For whatever reason, that eased the tension in Chad’s chest, though part of him wanted to demand why. Wanted to ask what he could have possibly done to warrant Jay’s attention.

Unfortunately, Chad had always been a bit of a coward, so he didn’t, deciding to take the good things that were offered to him without asking why. 

Sometimes you didn’t need to go looking for trouble.

“Good,” Chad said, somewhat inarticulately. “Me too.”

“Good,” Jay echoed back, and then he was guiding Chad forward, like he was special in any possible way.

It was a heady thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t think I can express how grateful I am for y’all’s feedback!! I was worried about how this story would be received, so your support is both a relief and comfort. Thanks for giving this one a shot!! :D
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> I think in the Disney canon Snow White’s husband is Prince Florian? I used Erik from the Snow White and the Hunstman movies instead, because he’s played by Chris Hemsworth and therefore awesome. Also, while it is not expanded on, he died young in this world, which is why Snow White didn’t have any heirs of her own.
> 
> So Harmon Gad is Uma, Gil, and Harry’s oldest. I used my usual tactic for determining his name by looking at the name origins of both Harry and Gil, which both turned out to be Germanic, and from there I created a Frankenstein abomination of a name to include both of them. I don’t really know if this works or not, I envisioned it sort of to be like the equivalent of Betty Ann, but it could very well be that it doesn’t work at all. German folks, let me know if you have thoughts on this ^_^
> 
> Until next time :)


	4. The Date

He and Jay started texting regularly. At first Chad relied on the crutch that was Bella, wielding pictures of her adventures like a sort of sword to battle the demon that was awkward silence, but Jay seemed to live for these snapshots. They grew from discussing them to discussing Bella’s interests to Chad’s management of their lives, and before he knew it, he was calling Jay once a night – sometimes to rant about stuffy nobles and sometimes to gush about magic discoveries and sometimes he sat back and listened to Jay complain about diva-like teammates and Carlos’ determination to set him up with someone. Chad would facetime Jay before tucking Bella in at night so he could wish her sweet dreams, and then he insisted on repeating the process with Chad, even though the prince tended to go to sleep quite late. 

Jay wasn’t there, but he was definitely present in their lives, and Chad almost didn’t know what to do with himself because of it. He couldn’t come on too strong. They weren’t in high school anymore, for cripes’ sake. He needed to be cool about this.

“Heard you got yourself a sweetie,” Uma noted on her second day visiting the workshop, which had expanded to two buildings in the last three years, and Chad was still considering adding a third.

Chad, because they had previously been discussing the merits of elemental magic (he wasn’t intimately educated on the subject, but he’d heard Queen Elsa and Chief Moana discuss it enough times that he felt at least comfortable), was suitably thrown by this abrupt change of topic. “Um- what?”

“You and Jay,” Uma continued, half her attention on Chad, half her attention on their three children splashing inside an ornamental fountain – Uma’s youngest watching from her position outside the fountain, giggling each time Bella and Harmon Gad splashed water on each other. “Carlos is in stubborn denial, but Jane let it slip that he asked for your number.” She tore her gaze away from their children long enough to toss an unimpressed look at Chad. “And it’s not like any of us missed the way he was hanging off of you at the twins’ birthday.”

“We were catching up,” Chad insisted, knowing he was blushing but protesting on principle. “We hadn’t seen each other in years.”

“Yeah,” Uma drawled, rolling her eyes. “Don’t we all fucking know it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chad asked, his chest doing that dumb, flippy thing again.

“Nothing,” Uma sighed, turning the conversation back to magic. “Now I’ve got some potion components from deep ocean reefs, and I was thinking…”

Others dropped hints, of course. Jane would occasionally text him and ask how things were going, which was not uncharacteristic for Jane, until she started asking after Jay specifically. His father would light up every time he saw Chad checking his phone, knowing without being told who Chad was talking to and taking it upon himself to coo however he saw most appropriate.

Even Mal had called Chad, though her conversation was short, and had only happened once.

“ _Listen up, Charming_ ,” she had drawled, voice wobbling like maybe she had hit the liquor too hard, but not hard enough that she was without her bearings. “ _I’ll say this once. Don’t you dare fuck with him. I don’t care how cool your kid is – you fuck with him; I’ll make her an orphan_.”

Chad, who had not been called ‘Charming’ in years, who could technically report this threat to the Central Council along with concerns for Mal’s fitness of duty and not be out of bounds, simply let out a low hum.

“Drink some water, Mal,” Chad offered. 

“ _Bite me_ ,” she snapped, and then the line cut out. 

So maybe Chad was a little nervous by the time Jay actually made it to Sardinia, but he tried not to focus on it, no matter how many knowing looks Captain Anozie sent him. Chad was fine. _Honestly_. 

“Daddy,” Bella said, shifting her weight anxiously as they waited for Jay’s car to pull up. “Is he really coming?”

“Yeah, shortstop,” Chad said, his heart seeming to pound in his chest. “He is.”

“ _I_ _nto our house_ ,” Bella whispered, totally in awe. “You should have invited him sooner.”

“I had to invite him when he was ready,” Chad offered, not sure how to respond.

“Well,” Bella huffed. “Then he should have been _ready_ sooner.”

There was no arguing with a five-year-old. Not over this, and not over how much restraint needed to be exhibited when their favorite Tourney player of all time walked into their front door.

“Jay, Jay, Jay, _Jay, Jay!_ ” Bella chanted as she ran for the Tourney player, who looked just as devastatingly handsome in his Tourney sweats as he did in the fancy outfit Evie had made for him at the party. “Jay, you’re here!”

“Munchkin!” Jay cheered, scooping Bella up and spinning her in a deft circle, much to her delight. “You had pictures to show me?”

“Yes!” Bella cheered, and that was how they came to spend an entire princess-guided afternoon, Bella showing off her latest artistic creations in the modest studio Chad and his father had set up for her just off her suite, and then lunch, where Jay was kind enough to let Bella sit in his lap while she talked almost nonstop. 

She started to waver after their walk through the garden, and while she tried to fight it, there was no amount of stubborn will that could battle ‘Lavender’s Blue’ – the lullaby Chad’s mother had left him with. He and Jay settled Bella down for her nap together, and then Chad, at a total loss, showed the Tourney player to the bustling magic workshop.

Because he was, you know, smooth. 

“This is all yours?” Jay asked, looking over the setup with a distinctly impressed look Chad tried not to get too worked up over.

“It’s ours,” Chad corrected. “I mean- it’s a collective. It belongs to all magic users.” He tugged Jay deeper into the workshop, past the cluttered mass of chalkboards where Doug and Balin had been brainstorming new rune applications. “After my quest, I realized how important it was for magic users to have a safe space to retreat to – to collaborate and hash out new ideas.” He pointedly dragged Jay past a series of cauldrons Yzla and Zevon were arguing over, knowing that was an explosion waiting to happen. “A lot of them end up training on their own, discovering their abilities and channeling that part of themselves through trial and error, but here they can get advice from people who understand their plights the best, trade stories and tricks of the trade, so to speak.”

“That’s brilliant,” Jay said with no amount of irony, and Chad was forced to look away in order to hide the embarrassed flush he could feel heating his cheeks. “You know, on the Isle we had a school for witches.” At Chad’s look of surprise, he continued, “Obviously, they couldn’t do any practical applications. I think the magic users wanted to pass on their theoretical knowledge, like they were determined to keep that part of themselves alive.”

“Did you go there?” Chad asked, because despite his best efforts, he didn’t really know much about Jay’s experience on the Isle.

Jay let out a rueful laugh. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “The last thing I wanted was to be anything like my dad. When we got over here, Mal and Evie leapt into exploring their magical heritage, but I… I didn’t. Couldn’t.” He shook his head again. “I suppose I was a bit of a coward.”

“It isn’t cowardice to want something new,” Chad insisted, pulling Jay to a halt in one of the quiet research nooks, the slowly growing library a bit of a disorganized mess that only Merlin seemed to comprehend. “There are plenty of individuals with magic in their blood that choose to live ordinary lives. There’s no crime in that.”

Especially with the magic ban only just recently done away with. 

Jay was quiet for a moment, something complicated shifting over his face before he eventually moved his shoulders in a low shrug. “What happened back then… it made me wish I hadn’t avoided magic so desperately,” he said, his voice thick with regret. “If I hadn’t-”

“Jay,” Chad interrupted, wanting to chase away the tight, uncomfortable feeling of panic before it could settle. “It’s done.” He struggled to think of something else to say, some other consolation, and then he was hit with a distinct swell of fear. “That’s… that isn’t why you did this, right?”

“What?” Jay blinked, and he looked so genuinely startled that Chad instantly felt ebbs of relief sinking into his brain. “No. You’re not- this isn’t a guilt thing.” He turned, and suddenly Chad found himself boxed against one of those messy bookshelves, Jay pressing close without touching Chad, which seemed almost more intimate than anything else they’d done. “I’m here for you,” Jay said, looking Chad over with an open sort of want that left the prince shivering. “Think you’re the only one who’s been following someone’s career for the last few years?”

Before Chad could ask what that meant, a delicate throat cleared beside them, and when he looked up it was to see the inquisitive features of Honey Lemon – their resident alchemy genius who had a real name that Chad for the life of him could not discover. She seemed to constantly be running on thirty minutes of sleep and the sugar sweet concoctions she had labeled as her _special drink_ that Chad would not sample if he was dying of thirst.

“Hey!” she said in a voice that was too loud considering their immediate vicinity. “If you’re going to have sex, Maddie left some tracer bracelets-”

“ _Honey_ ,” Chad groaned, hiding his face in Jay’s shoulder, who had the audacity to laugh.

“-it would really help us establish a baseline,” Honey Lemon continued. “I keep telling her that sexual applications of magic are a long way from being market viable in the public perception, but she insists-”

“We’re gonna go for a walk now,” Chad said loudly, because if he didn’t cut off the relentless diatribe of Honey Lemon’s focus then she would never leave them alone. 

He liked Honey Lemon a lot, but he also sort of wanted to go on his date a lot more.

“Oh.” Honey Lemon blinked, her eyes wide behind her thick glasses. “Okay, have fun! And if you decide to have sex-”

“Bye, Honey!” Chad shouted, dragging Jay from the workshop to the chorus of Yzla and Zevon’s laughter. 

“I like her,” Jay declared when Chad finally pulled him out into the sunlight, off towards the outer area of workshop number two. “Are all your researchers that eccentric?”

“We range a wide motley of personalities,” Chad said, trying to will away his blush. “From grumpy to nosy to egotistical to delightfully charming. You’ll find that when someone gets really good at a particular field, their understanding of other subjects tends to fade away. Hence the general disregard for social basics.”

“I think you guys have the right idea,” Jay laughed as Chad tugged him over towards the charm workbench on a whim. “Conversational niceties are for chumps. To hell with them.”

“Not so loud,” Chad murmured with a playful hiss. “Merlin will take that as permission to ignore the dress code, and we established that for a reason.”

“I am suddenly very interested in this reason.”

“You wouldn’t be, if you had been there the day he decided clothes were overrated,” Chad muttered, and he got about two seconds of Jay processing that before the man burst into helpless laughter. 

By the time it finally died down, Chad summoned his wand, opening the enchanted lockers that held a few of his latest projects.

“So, um…” Chad felt awkward again, fumbling for the two seemingly plain bracelets before he passed one over to Jay. “This is actually something that I’ve been working on personally, in my downtime. It’s for Bella’s tenth birthday, but I um- wanted to make sure I got all the kinks out of it first.”

“Five years is a long time to work out your kinks,” Jay marveled, inspecting the bracelet with intense focus. “What are they for?”

“Put it on,” Chad said, sliding his own band onto his wrist. “And I’ll show you.”

Despite the years that had passed, Jay wasn’t one to turn down a challenge. He slipped the bracelet on with a wide grin and eagerly followed Chad down to the magic-created lake Uma and Chief Moana had insisted on conjuring. 

“These are just conduits,” Chad explained, fidgeting restlessly with his wand. “I’ve been tweaking them to better channel the floating charm I’ve been working on.”

“Floating charm?” Jay echoed, perking up with excitement. “You saying these things can make us levitate?”

“That is the goal,” Chad said, trying not to be bashful under such intense focus. “Would you like to test them out?”

“Fuck yes, I would,” Jay said, excitedly offering out his arm – and it was a small thing, it wasn’t even like a real show of trust because there were plenty of people to act as witnesses should Chad do something nefarious, and yet it still sent a small thrill of – he didn’t know- _awe_ through his chest.

“Okay,” Chad said, reminding himself not to be nervous. He wasn’t a bumbling apprentice anymore; he was a prince. “Here we go.” 

He cast the spell with practiced ease and reveled in the way Jay’s eyes lit up when their feet began to pull from the ground, gravity no longer a factor in their existence as they drifted up into the air.

“Come on,” Chad said, tugging him over the lake for safety. “I’ve been working on some enchanted fans in order to help with maneuverability-”

“Chad,” Jay interrupted, his grin seeming impossibly wide. “This is amazing. We are floating. We are lifting _into the air_. We are birds.” He laughed, so loud and so true that Chad couldn’t help but follow him. “This is perfect,” Jay declared, unconcerned when they floated higher, maybe twenty feet in the air. “This is everything.”

“And here I thought snakes liked the ground,” Chad mused, trying to be coy.

It didn’t seem to work, Jay’s expression tightening for a moment before he seemed to force the tension away. “I think I’m done with that,” he said, referring to the sigil he used to wear on his back in high school. “Starting fresh, remember? And if I’m doing that, I think I’d like to be a bird.”

“Like an Anqa?” Chad said, half in apology, rushing to get the words out to correct his error. At Jay’s intrigued look, he clarified, “It’s a mythical bird of Agrabah, said to give out advice it has collected over its many years of life.” 

Jay threw his head back with a deep laugh. “You think I’m wise?”

“It’s a fresh start,” Chad said with a shrug. “You can be whatever you want to be.”

“Yeah?” Jay said, tugging Chad closer, the wind blowing through his loose hair. “About that-”

A pulse, and Chad felt _something_ go wrong with the bracelets, knew they weren’t channeling the charm properly when they fell ten feet, paused long enough to look startled, and then fell into the lake below in graceless messes. 

It was, you know, humiliating, but when Jay burst back above water he was laughing, his hair glued to his cheeks and his soaked knit cap sliding down into his eyes. “Okay,” he said, spitting out a mouthful of water. “I get why we did that over the lake now.”

“It’s a work in progress,” Chad reminded him, blushing furiously, and then he worked on guiding them back towards the edge of the lake with their sodden clothes. 

So, not the greatest start. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

They cleaned up in separate bathrooms – not that Chad had been expecting to share, or anything. This wasn’t even a date, not really, just a visit, and a first visit on top of that. For all that Jay was coy when they parted, Chad knew they weren’t there yet, and maybe would never be, or if they were it might just be that and not any of the emotional stuff. Chad didn’t know; he’d never gotten the chance to really date someone. There had been Audrey, but that had been a rebound relationship through and through. 

Their wet clothes got taken away by the servants for cleaning, so when Jay reappeared he was wearing some of Chad’s sweats, looking devilishly handsome with his hair pulled into a loose braid and his feet clad in the obnoxious socks Celia had gotten Chad as a gag gift – the things littered with small versions of his mother’s shoes on a bright blue and yellow background.

Chad probably spent too long staring at those socks, and when he risked looking up, Jay was quirking an amused eyebrow at him.

“So,” Chad managed. “Um- movie?”

“Your kiddo going to join us?” Jay asked, though now he was grinning, like he wasn’t afraid of the prospect.

“She has lessons until dinner,” Chad said. “And then its family time before the trial that is bedtime.”

“Oh?” The corner of Jay’s lip kicked up in a smirk. “Bella have a problem with her set bedtime?”

“Only always,” Chad sighed, running a hand through his curls. “I admire her tenacity, you know? And I always want to encourage her strength and dedication, because as a princess, she’ll need a strong will – I just- sometimes it’s hard having a determined child, is all. Rewarding always, but-”

“Tiring,” Jay said, and Chad found himself nodding. 

It was easy to get tired, nowadays. Even with his army of assistants, there were so many things to juggle, so many things to do, and adding fatherhood on top of that – Chad would trade it for nothing, but he often found himself stretched thin. 

He was lucky for what he had, and he would never complain about it, but sometimes it was just hard.

“Okay,” Jay declared suddenly, his voice firm. “I know what we’re doing.” 

He took Chad’s hand and started guiding him back towards his guest suite. 

“What?” Chad asked, anxious from his uncertainty. 

“You,” Jay began as he tugged Chad into his bedroom, for reasons that were likely _entirely innocent_. “-are going to be pampered.”

“Jay.” Chad flushed, trying to tug his wrist from the other man’s hold. “You can’t- you’re my guest.”

“And as your guest, I want to pamper you,” Jay said, rearranging the pillows on his bed. “Now lay down on your stomach.”

“Um.”

“For a massage,” Jay elaborated with a smirk, likely anticipating every immature thought that had flickered through Chad’s brain. “I’ve picked up a thing or two from the massage therapist assigned to my team.”

“Oh,” Chad said, feeling dumb. In an effort to hide his face, he slid onto the bed, hiding his expression in the safe pillow of his arms as he felt the bed dip beside him – Jay getting into position.

“Just relax,” Jay soothed, his hands settling on Chad’s shoulders with a certain deliberation. “I can see your tension from here.”

“Sorry,” Chad mumbled.

“Don’t apologize,” Jay tutted. “Just enjoy.”

And yeah, it wasn’t hard for Chad to do that.

Despite the obvious connotations presented by two gentlemen who were sort of dating sharing a bed together, Jay’s massage didn’t stray past perfectly professional attentions. He spent a lot of time on Chad’s shoulders, on his neck and the center of his back before moving onto his arms, his hands. By the time he got to Chad’s feet, the prince had to swallow his moans because he hadn’t realized how much his poor muscles needed the attention until he got it. 

He must have drifted off partway through it because he found himself waking up later curled against Jay’s side, the other man wrapping a contented arm around Chad’s shoulders, scrolling through his phone like he had nothing better to do on his day off than act as Chad’s pillow. 

“Sorry,” Chad said, rubbing at his eyes as he stirred towards coherence. “I’m so-”

“Hey,” Jay said, soft and careful, and Chad looked up in time to get a chaste kiss for his troubles. When Jay pulled back, his grin was triumphant. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

Chad really wished he’d stop saying things like that, because then Chad was going to believe him. And maybe it’d be true for a time, but it seemed unlikely for things to last, no matter how determined Jay was. 

“Come on,” Jay said, looking at his phone when it chimed. “That’s dinner. Let’s go see your kiddo.”

“Okay,” Chad said, glad to follow wherever Jay led, if only for the moment.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Because there was a rotating system that must be respected, Bella spent dinner next to Captain Anozie, arguing lightly with her adoptive grandfather as to how much was the appropriate amount of vegetables she needed to consume to get dessert. The captain was forever patient, which seemed to wear on Bella in a familiar way before she gave up, shoveling broccoli into her mouth with single minded focus while she quizzed Jay on the latest developments of his team. 

Beside them, Chad’s father looked on with open adoration, making Chad wonder how long, exactly, he was going to wait before he finally asked the captain to marry him. Or date. Or _anything_. Chad had been prepping Captain Anozie’s second in command for years, but Chad supposed all the men in his family were sort of hopeless when it came to romance. The Duke had only sighed about it with his usual despair when Chad had asked his opinion on the matter, so maybe it was best to let them sort these things out on their own. 

After dinner were board games where Bella immediately claimed Jay as her partner. She looked very serious perched next to him, scheming with the Tourney player in not so quiet whispers that the rest of them ignored. The Duke decided to join them that day – as did Fairy Godmother, so they had a rather exuberant game of _Eye Found It_ , which required them to work together to find all the appropriate picture matches. They broke apart for a smaller game of Chutes and Ladders next, until Bella started yawning, signaling the first of many battles for that evening.

Fortunately, Chad had a secret weapon by way of Jay, who very seriously informed Bella how important it was to get a full night’s sleep in order to grow up big and strong. Bella accepted this advice with a dubious sniff and a quick hug, and then it was off towards the bath, where she proceeded to soak the front of Chad’s clothes in her efforts to reenact the latest sea battle Uma had told her about. 

Chad hadn’t been sure what Jay was doing in the meantime, but apparently waiting outside the bathroom had been on the list, because he easily fell in step with Chad and Bella as the prince tucked his daughter into bed, turning on the literal army of nightlights she had been gifted over the years. 

Jay was the one that ended up reading to her, the Tourney player lounging on the other side of her bed while Chad carded a careful hand through her messy curls, until they had completed yet another chapter of the Adventures of Flynn Rider and Bella’s eyes were drifting shut, the young princess exhausted from her busy day.

“Thank you,” Chad said when they were walking back to Jay’s suite. “For everything. Thank you. That was probably the easiest that’s gone in a while.”

Jay looked at him with an expression of unmistakable fondness, and when he reached over, it was so he could tangle Chad’s fingers in his own. “It was my pleasure,” he said, and for whatever reason, he seemed to mean it. “…do you think that earned me a reward?”

“ _Um_.” Chad could feel his cheeks heating with a furious blush. “That um- depends on what you’d like as a reward, I guess.”

“That’s fair,” Jay hummed, tugging Chad into his suite. “I was just thinking about how you gave Bella a bath.”

“Yeah?” Chad said, probing, not entirely sure where the other man was going.

“So,” Jay continued, and Chad realized he was being herded into Jay’s bedroom again. “I was thinking maybe I could give you one.”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad said, part scandalized but mostly embarrassed.

The Tourney player let out a good-natured laugh. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he pressed. “I don’t want to be too forward-”

“I guess I um- am mostly surprised that you’d want to,” Chad admitted, tacking on an awkward laugh to ease some of his social inadequacies, but Jay seemed to look through it with an interested quirk of his brows.

“Oh,” Jay began, his voice low and deep and sultry. “I _want to_.”

“Um…” At a total loss for words, Chad guided the other man towards the bathroom, hoping he was suitably prepared for whatever would follow.

He wasn’t.

He wasn’t prepared for Jay to look him over like he was something to be treasured – or maybe that was just hunger. Chad knew he was reasonably good looking – had worked to maintain his appearance for the sake of reflecting well on his people, his family. He had a stylist for a reason, and Jay made him feel every one of those reasons when he carefully guided a washcloth over the entirety of Chad’s body, sure to get every inch while he blindsided the blond with casual compliments. 

He seemed extra focused on Chad’s nipples, and whether that was because of what happened before or because of a personal kink, Chad did not know, but it didn’t take long for Jay to abandon the washcloth altogether and attack Chad’s pectorals with his fingers alone. 

“Jay,” Chad gasped, back arching into the other man’s hands while a heated flush spilled down his chest. “P-Please.”

“What?” Jay asked, breath hot as he pressed kissed against Chad’s shoulder, his neck. “What do you need, Chad?”

“I don’t-” Chad swallowed, shuddering hard. “I don’t know. I don’t-”

“It’s okay,” Jay soothed, alternating flicks with careful rubs, his lips pressing against the base of Chad’s throat, his collarbones, trailing lower. “I’m here when you figure it out. Whatever you need, okay?”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad crooned, hands spasming when those hot lips closed around one of his abused nubs, Jay sucking and licking at Chad like it held any kind of appeal for him. 

It only got worse when Jay’s hand strayed lower, hovering just above Chad’s throbbing interest. “May I?”

“P-Please,” Chad said, not realizing what he’d needed until it was offered, Jay’s hand settling between Chad’s legs, teasing and stroking at Chad until he felt close to falling apart. 

“Feel so good,” Jay would murmur against Chad’s pectorals. “So good and sweet in my hand. Are you ready?”

“Jay,” Chad would moan, his fingers tangling in the other man’s hair. “ _Jay!_ ”

It didn’t take long for him to fall over the edge, but Jay guided him through it without problem, coaxing out all Chad had to offer until he was a moaning, flushed mess. 

“So pretty,” Jay murmured when they were done, looking over Chad’s debauched form with an open sort of appreciation, his gaze lingering on the slick splattered across his chest until he moved to clean that away too, trading lazy kisses with Chad.

“Can I-?” Chad felt so awkward, sneaking words between kisses. “Could I um- help you?”

Jay paused, then seemed to shudder, his eyes half shut with want. “If um- you’d like to.”

That was how Chad came to work a hand down Jay’s pants, surprised by the wet heat he found in the other man’s underwear, his interest, and humbled by the opportunity to make him feel good. Chad had never done this, had never been an active participant in the few trysts he’d managed in his life, but despite his inexperience, he found he enjoyed it. He liked making Jay’s breath hitch, liked watching his eyes flutter closed. He liked whispering pretty things to him that made Jay blush while he moved his hand faster and faster, hoping he was doing something right. He guessed he was, because it didn’t take long for Jay to come in his underwear, the Tourney player gasping against Chad’s mouth all the while.

“Oops,” Chad said, feeling a little coy as he kissed at Jay’s neck. “Guess I should clean you up, then.”

Turnabout was fair play, and Chad greatly enjoyed the sight of Jay sprawled out in his bathtub, flushed and handsome when Chad bit at his nipples, until he was all worked up again and Chad got to guide him through that too.

“Cheater,” Jay gasped later, when they were both naked and clean and the water was swirling down the drain. “… _fuck_.”

“Maybe um- later,” Chad said, earning a startled laugh from Jay.

Despite his bluff, they didn’t do anything more than lazily make out together when they stumbled into bed, Jay determined to wrap himself around Chad. He pouted when Chad forced him into boxer briefs, but the man would be grateful when they got their early wakeup call from a determined five-year-old who didn’t care how little clothes they were wearing. 

“ _Fine_ ,” Jay huffed, then proceeded to spend the next thirty minutes groping Chad’s butt, blushing when Chad bashfully returned the favor, and maybe this wasn’t what adult dates were supposed to be like, but Chad found he enjoyed it well enough.

And that was what mattered.

-:-:-:-:-:-

They lost Jay in the early morning – Tourney games taking place early in the day so that they could be broadcasted at night, after the networks had been given time to edit them as needed. He returned again for lunch, and that started a new routine for them for the following week. Chad and Jay always spent the afternoon with Bella doing something before lunch – whether it was a stroll down to the beach followed by a picnic or an afternoon out at the Sardinian Children’s Museum or even an afternoon of mock Tourney drills that Harmon Gad had joined them for, Gil cheering appropriately from the sidelines while he coaxed his tiny daughter through her own drills on wobbly, enthusiastic legs. 

He'd put Bella down for a nap, and then he’d get ‘date’ time with Jay, which always varied. Once they went on a horse ride through the woods, Jay clinging to Chad’s back because he was unversed in riding. Once they’d gone out for a movie, and Jay had spent most of it holding his hand, feeding Chad overpriced candies with a playful grin that made Chad warm down to his stomach. They went for walks, they talked, and they grew from holding hands to Jay wrapping an arm around Chad’s waist like it belonged there, making the various researchers that came and went from the workshop light up with knowing smiles. 

At night, they just about always bathed each other. It felt safer than doing things in the bedroom, somehow. Like this was an allowed infraction – casual and fun rather than committed. Near the end of the week, they came to share the tub at the same time, until Chad was perched in Jay’s lap, facing the Tourney player while they traded gentle kisses, Jay’s hands firmly on Chad’s butt because he was determined to find a way to make this more embarrassing.

“You know,” Jay said when they were properly worked up, his lips flushed from their efforts. “If I was being really diligent, I would clean everywhere.”

“You’re not?” Chad said, quirking a playful brow (he could do that now that he’d worked up to it, he could pretend to be confident when he really just felt lost).

“Nope,” Jay hummed into their next kiss. “See,” he said when they broke apart. “I’ve been missing this _one_ spot…”

His fingers shifted deliberately, brushing between Chad’s cheeks. At first Chad thought it was an accident, but then he was probing deeper, brushing against Chad’s entrance.

Immediately, Chad froze, his heart hammering in his chest.

“Or not,” Jay said, pulling his hand back. “Or definitely not.”

“No,” Chad said, suddenly embarrassed. Things had been going so well, and he’d ruined it. “No, it’s just- I haven’t… I haven’t done anything um- like that, since…”

He didn’t need to clarify, dropping off with a meaningful silence, but Jay still stared at him like this was the most pressing information in the world.

“You haven’t?” Jay asked, seeming to register how gobsmacked he sounded a moment later and shook his head, reverting into something more confident. “Did you… are you not comfortable with that?”

Chad felt his cheeks fill with an awkward heat. “I don’t… I don’t know,” he admitted. “There just- there hasn’t been time for me to really-”

“Right,” Jay said, thankfully cutting Chad off before he could sputter his way through an awkward explanation. “Three-year quest followed by fatherhood, of course it wasn’t a priority.”

“ _Right_ ,” Chad echoed, feeling hopelessly embarrassed. “I um… I…”

He’d liked it, back then. Or, the plant had made him like it, and while he hadn’t enjoyed being violated by greenery, the um- pleasant feeling it managed to inspire seemed okay.

Jay seemed to sense Chad’s unease and moved to claim his lips in a soft kiss, grounding Chad with gentle probes until he could breathe easy again. 

“Hey,” Jay said softly when Chad’s heart had stabilized once more. “Would you like to try? We don’t have to,” he rushed to assure. “We absolutely do not have to. But if you’re interested, we could try, and if you’re uncomfortable, we’ll stop – no questions, no nothing.” He paused, squeezing Chad’s hand, staring him down with an unwarranted intensity. “Would you like that?”

“I…” Chad nodded, going with his gut instinct, shifting nervously. “But um- I don’t think I can- you’ll be able to fuck me, yet-”

“Nope, hey-” Jay cut off his rambles with another kiss. “That’s not what we’re talking about. This is me making you feel good because I want to.”

“ _Um_ …” Maybe there was something about having a prince in a vulnerable position that did something for Jay, though the thought seemed entirely unkind. Jay hadn’t done anything to prove himself untrustworthy over the last few days, it was Chad’s lingering fear of what they’d had before- who Jay had been _back then_ , that made him worry. Even in the Outerlands, he had heard tale of Jay’s promiscuity. And maybe it had hurt, but that was entirely Chad’s failing, not Jay’s.

“Okay,” Chad said eventually, and Jay urged him up onto his knees so he was mostly out of the water, Jay’s hand fumbling for a tube of lubricant he’d hidden behind the bubble bath. 

Oh. _Sneaky_.

But that was who Jay was, at the end of the day. Chad couldn’t fault him for that.

He was nervous when Jay cradled him close against his chest, Chad’s semi pressing against his stomach as the Agraben’s dexterous fingers slid behind the curve of Chad’s rear, making their way forward until they could curl against that small ring of muscle. He probed carefully, distracted Chad with lazy kisses while Chad did his best not to tense. 

He’d liked this, before. Parts of it. And Jay was willingly doing this to Chad now. 

It wasn’t like with Ben, when Chad had already been thoroughly stretched and drenched by the plant’s toxins. Now it was just Chad and Jay and a small bottle of lubricant that Jay worked into Chad’s skin, teasing and prodding at him until he slowly worked one finger inside Chad.

“ _Jay_ ,” he moaned, too loud and too long, but Jay seemed delighted by the reaction, wiggling his finger in response.

“Like that?” Jay asked, like he hadn’t been there when Chad had been so desperately whorish, when he’d been worked over by a plant. 

“Please,” Chad said instead of response, gripping at Jay’s shoulders with shaky hands. “Don’t stop.”

“I won’t,” Jay promised, and then he was back to kissing Chad, working his finger a little bit faster.

It wasn’t until he had two inside Chad that he brushed against _that_ spot. And Chad had been so overwhelmed last time that he thought the devastating thrills of want had been a result of the plant, but it turned out he really did just like butt stuff, he guessed, because it felt just as good, made his length throb in a desperate twinge that had him leaking against Jay’s skin.

“Fuck, fuck, _there_ please,” Chad crooned, his nails burying into Jay’s skin. “Right there-”

“Yeah,” Jay breathed, his breath coming in rough pants. “Right there.”

Chad might be inexperienced but Jay seemed to be an expert of giving Chad what he wanted but not enough to find his release. He teased and toyed with Chad, kept him dangling on the edge of completion for so long Chad had broken down into incoherent murmurs, begging Jay to let him go against the other man’s skin.

“ _Please_ ,” he cried; lips hot against Jay’s throat. “Please, _please_ Jay, I gotta- let me come.”

“You’re gonna,” Jay said, his expression hungry, predatory. “Trust me, sweetheart, you’re gonna-”

“Let me,” Chad gasped, and then he was reaching below him, getting a hand around Jay’s length until the Tourney player let out a broken cry. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” he breathed as his hips arched into Chad’s attentions. “Cheater. Such a cheater. I should make you wait-”

“Jay,” Chad whined. “Both of us, together. Please-”

“Okay,” Jay soothed, running a hand down Chad’s arm. “Okay, sweetheart. Together. We’ll come together.”

Somehow, they did, in a messy, loud release that left Chad feeling like he’d been fractured apart, like something had shoved a hand into his chest and scooped out all the important stuff and replaced it with warmth and incoherence. 

They laid there, collapsed against each other long enough for the water to turn cold, each struggling to catch their breath.

“Yeah,” Jay said, letting his head fall back with a sigh. “We should definitely do that more often.”

Chad’s only response was to kiss his chest, but Jay seemed to get his meaning, if the small smile that tugged at his lips meant anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you guys so much for the feedback!! It is greatly appreciated, and really eases my anxiety, which is a gift unto itself ^_^
> 
> Story notes: 
> 
> Balin is a character borrowed from Tolkien’s Middle Earth. He is from The Hobbit, and I usually have him as a stand in for Doc of the seven dwarves. 
> 
> Honey Lemon is from the Big Hero 6 franchise. While she is originally a scientist, I figure she is one of the individuals that would try combine the fields of biochemistry and alchemy just to see what she could do.
> 
> The Anqa is classified as an Arabian Legendary creature, according to Wikipedia. As Agrabah is sort of inspired by a large array of real-life countries, I feel like that was a safe enough possibility for one of its mythical creatures. 
> 
> Turns out you can google ‘board games for five-year-olds’ and definitely get a list of options. Ironically, one of the highest rated 6 player games was ‘Disney, Eye found it!’, which was what I decided to honor here ^_^
> 
> Until next time :)


	5. Getting Serious

Chad did his best not to make a big deal of things.

He didn’t succeed, because he was himself, but he tried. He thought that counted. Jay knew something was up the moment Chad started walking Jay to his limo, fidgeting and fretting up a storm despite his very strict training not to do just that.

“Chad,” Jay said when it seemed like the prince was going to burst out of his own skin. “Just tell me.”

“Um,” Chad said, too loud for their close proximity, immediately making him wince. “I um- made you something.”

This seemed to surprise Jay. “You did?” he asked, lips shifting into a roguish grin. “What, got a key made for me?”

It was a joke, Chad knew it was a joke, they’d only been doing whatever they’d been doing for a week and now Jay was leaving again and that was fine, that was life, but-

“Sort of,” Chad said, digging through his pockets so he wouldn’t have to look at Jay’s reaction. “Here,” he said, thrusting three items into the other man’s palm. “This is um- so _that_ -” He pointed to the nondescript pendant hanging on an enchanted leather cord. “Is a teleportation key. With it you can access the permanent teleportation station set up by the workshop. That-” He pointed to the rough green crystal. “Is basically an energy catalyst. In place of magic, you would press that against the pendant to fuel and activate it, and then think of Sardinia to complete the teleportation. And _this-_ ” He pointed to a nondescript stone etched with intricate runes. “Is a jerry-rigged temp teleportation setup. So you’d just set that in your hotel room or apartment or wherever you want to teleport back to so you won’t- _wouldn’t_ be stranded here.” 

Chad shifted backing and forth, hoping very much that he hadn’t accidentally been too forward.

“So,” he continued. “You um- have access to the grounds whenever you want them. I already told the castle staff. If you want to visit or even just need a place to crash, or want non-road food, you’re welcome here.”

Jay stared at the items cradled in his hands, his face unreadable. It felt like hours before he finally looked up, and in those moments Chad worried that he’d crossed a line, that he pushed for too much too soon, but then Jay was smiling.

“You offering to share your home with me?” Jay asked, like he was testing something.

Chad wasn’t sure what it could be, though. “And Bella’s,” he said rather uncreatively. “If you want.”

“I want,” Jay confirmed, then stepped forward, tugging Chad into a soft kiss in the lazy afternoon sun in front of everyone. 

So. 

Chad considered that an exchange well managed.

-:-:-:-:-:-

He hadn’t expected Jay to make use of the teleportation pendant.

Or, he had, just not like, immediately. Chad figured there would be a grace period where Jay settled back into his life and they got used to long-distance communication before the Tourney player appeared with a roguish smile and a broad wink.

As was becoming apparent for most things that pertained to their relationship, Chad was not correct.

Jay strolled into dinner that night, fresh from the locker room showers as he scooped Bella up, spinning her in a whirl before settling her in his lap, taking the seat next to Chad’s as had become their tradition during his week staying there.

“Servants dropped my bag off in the guest suite,” he said with a wink when he caught Chad’s stare.

“You’re here,” was Chad’s articulate response. 

He was pretty sure both his father and his grandfather hung their heads with despair.

“Yep,” Jay drawled, bumping his shoulder against Chad’s. “Not that the food’s bad in Maldonia or anything, I just prefer the company, you know?”

“Yeah,” Chad said, breathless, butterflies stirring furiously in his stomach. “I know. I mean- I guess.”

“No guessing necessary,” Jay hummed, and then he leaned over and pressed a chaste kiss against Chad’s lips.

At least until Bella started poking his cheek, demanding her own kisses, which she got pressed against her curls, along with a tickle that made her howl in delight. 

So.

That was a new pattern.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“We should move him into your suite,” Chad’s father said out of the blue one day, when he, Chad, and the Duke were in the middle of hashing out who would make what public appearances in the upcoming week.

Chad, who had been previously trying to argue his grandfather down to a few less appearances with the negotiating tactic of additional grandpappy/great-granddaughter time, flailed drastically, thoroughly caught off guard by the casual comment.

“Your father’s right,” Chad’s grandfather drawled, unimpressed with Chad’s broken composure. “It would save you a lot of back and forth between the royal quarters.”

“We all know you’re sharing a bed anyway,” Chad’s father continued, relentless. “Just give him one of the spare rooms so he can decorate it however he wants, magically soundproof it and presto-”

“ _Dad._ ”

“For goodness sake, Chadwick,” the Duke huffed. “We know you two are attracted to each other, and he seems to be treating you well. Of course, should that ever change-”

“You wouldn’t tell me what would happen,” Chad’s father said loudly. “So that I could have _plausible deniability_ for what is surely an _accident_.”

“Well,” Chad’s grandfather sniffed. “Obviously.”

“If I mention this to Jay, can we end this conversation?” Chad asked, wrought with desperation.

“Sure,” the Duke said. “But if you think I didn’t notice you erase that teatime luncheon from my schedule, you have another thing coming, young man.”

“Okay, grandpa,” Chad sighed, dutifully replacing the appointment he’d erased over the course of their argument.

“Great,” Chad’s father said. “Now that we have that settled, will anyone tell me why I have so many private lunches planned out with Nonso?”

Chad and his grandfather shared a look, trying not to despair. It was like his father didn’t _want_ to spend private time with Captain Anozie, even though that was definitely the case.

“Because a good king has good relations with his captain of the guard,” Chad’s grandfather beautifully lied.

“I feel like you said that last month,” the king grumbled, but he made no other arguments, so Chad guessed it was okay. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

“My room?” Jay asked as he inspected the tasteful but sparingly decorated extra room that went off of Chad’s suite. His suite- the prince’s suite, consisted of three bedrooms (for guests? He didn’t know), an office, a private library, a sitting room, a lounge, and a sunroom they had converted into an art studio for Bella. Chad actually didn’t spend that much time in his suite (the king’s suite had communal areas where they generally congregated), but he couldn’t help but feel terribly uneasy when Jay explored the space.

“Yes,” Chad said, shifting his weight hesitantly. “I mean, if you want it. I have privacy enchantments in place so you wouldn’t have to worry about um- noise. From the outside or inside, I mean.” Wow, he was not explaining this great. “And I can enchant the door so it will only open for you and the cleaning staff of your choice. Bella wouldn’t be able to get in.”

“Would you?” Jay asked, slanting a look over his shoulder. 

Chad thought it might be coy, but it was difficult to tell these things with Jay. Half the time his flirtatious nature seemed like a default mask to protect him, sort of a holding station while he absorbed information. 

Sort of like Chad and his fake charm. 

“If you wanted,” Chad said, feeling his cheeks heat with warmth despite the relatively innocent nature of the question. “You’d have access to my room.”

That made Jay’s brow rise, the suggestion shocking enough that he slipped out of his coy disposition into something more considerate.

Chad panicked just a little. “You can always keep your room outside the suite too,” he continued. “If you’re afraid about fights, or anything. I don’t- I want you to have a space that’s yours, that you won’t ever have to be afraid of being able to access.”

It was a little thing, but Chad knew that the little things made a world of difference sometimes. 

“We’re not gonna fight,” Jay said, a bold declaration, but Chad liked it when Jay declared stuff. “And I don’t need another room. This one’s perfect.”

It made a pool of warmth bubble in Chad’s chest, slowly expanding through the rest of his body, until he was encapsulated with a firm contentedness. “Wait till you decorate it,” Chad said, dragging Jay over to a selection of catalogues their interior designer had left for him. “You can pick your own colors and everything.”

“Yeah?” Jay hummed, but he was staring more at Chad than the catalogues. “Could I pick some colors for you?” 

-:-:-:-:-:-

That was the story of how Chad came to incorporate more crimson into his clothing collection. Never for official business – for that he always had to wear Sardinia blue and gold, but for lounging around the castle, or doing research in the workshop-

Well, it was worth it for the glossy eyed looks he’d get from Jay, for the frantic moments the other man pulled him aside for spontaneous heated make outs in empty offices. 

And then Jay returned the favor by wearing light blue, by giving Chad a taste of what their future could look like, and-

Well, he got why it was so distracting.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad was on his way back from filing some new legislature proposals at the capitol building in Central Auradon when Evie pulled him aside, her smile wide and entire disposition glowing.

“Thank you,” she said, pressing a kiss to Chad’s cheek before he even knew what was happening.

“Um,” Chad said, frantically thinking over the paperwork he’d just turned in and wondering what of it could relate to Evie specifically.

She laughed at him, as though knowing his panicked train of thought. “For Jay,” she said. “You gave him a home. He’s been constantly on the move since high school, and the rest of us found places to settle down but he…” She let out a wistful sigh. “Well, he’s always been a tricky one.” She reached down to squeeze Chad’s hand, her smile brilliant. “But now you’ve taken care of him. Let him know it would be safe to put down roots. I don’t know if he’ll ever be able to tell you, but he’s grateful for that. We all are.”

“Mal probably isn’t,” Chad said rather dumbly, because he could think of no other response.

Evie threw her head back in a laugh. “She is,” Evie assured. “She isn’t happy about it, but she is.”

Because that was what you did for your friends.

Chad wouldn’t know, or, he _did_ now, but-

Yeah, best not to think about it.

“Thanks, Evie,” Chad settled on, figuring when all else failed, it never hurt to be polite. “For telling me that.”

“My pleasure,” she chirped, and then she was hooking her arm through his, falling in step with him as they strolled down the hall. “Now, could I interest you in lunch? I have some parenting questions I’d like to submit to a credible source.”

“I wouldn’t know about credible,” Chad said. “But I’d be happy to help however I can.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Hey,” Chad’s boyfriend said one day (they had decided on Jay’s last visit that they were officially _boyfriends_ ). “Would um… would it be okay if um- this teleportation rune thing. Could I get one for Carlos?”

And that was… yeah, that made sense, because Carlos was Jay’s best friend. They skyped all the time, Jay texting the other man when he wasn’t texting Chad or Mal or Evie, but that couldn’t really supplement in-person bonding.

“It’s just-” Jay rushed to explain when Chad didn’t respond fast enough. “Now that I’m actually staying in one spot on a regular basis-”

“Hey, its’ all good,” Chad assured him, grinning at the relief that flooded Jay’s posture. “I’ll contact Jane about it. It would be good to see more of her as well.”

“Only if it’s okay,” Jay said. “And it’s not like he’d be over here all the time.”

“It would be fine if he was,” Chad reminded him gently. “We have a tendency to get caught up in magic here. It would be nice to have someone technologically-inclined to ground us.”

“So long as you’re sure,” Jay said, offering a genuine smile.

“I am,” Chad confirmed, already composing a new text to Jane. 

You could never have too many friends.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Your techno security here is surprisingly tight, considering that you’re the magic research capital of Auradon,” was how Carlos chose to greet Chad when he strolled in for dinner, his wife seeming forever put upon, even if she smiled while rolling her eyes.

“I don’t want to get cocky,” Chad answered him honestly, watching Bella run across the room to tackle hug her Aunt Jane. 

Jane returned that enthusiasm with open affection, swamping the small princess in a hug while she thanked Bella for the pictures she had sent her.

It was a good look for her, but Chad had always seen Jane as a motherly person. Jane was one year into the three-year process that was creating her own descendant via the same magic Fairy Godmother had used to make her, and while she wasn’t shy about committing to the process, what it entailed was a secret known only to Fairy Godmother’s line. As far as Chad knew, it involved a large blossom that Jane fed energy into every day, but that was mostly guesswork on his part. 

Evie’s twins would be three by the time Jane’s kiddo was born, and Evie had plans to get pregnant again just before that, so her and Carlos’ kids could go to school together.

It was very sweet. 

Carlos looked surprised upon hearing this, enough so that he actually looked up from his tablet. “I guess you really have changed.”

“In many ways,” Chad said instead of registering a hurt at that. He knew he hadn’t been the best in high school. “Now put that away, no electronics at the table.”

“Unless there’s a national emergency,” Bella droned, repeating the rule with an extra sense of exasperation. “And then daddy and grandpa and grandpappy and uncle captain can all look at their phones, but I can’t even watch tv.”

“Tv and mealtime is for the weekends,” Chad reminded her. “It’s what makes it special.”

“ _Ugh_ ,” was Bella’s rather articulate reply, and upon seeing that she had no sympathizers, she stomped over to Jay to demand attention from him, because she knew she would always get it. The guy was a sucker like that.

Carlos stared after Bella, then slowly put his tablet away. “Your kid’s pretty cool, Chad.”

“Yeah,” Chad said, sharing a look with Jane who always seemed to get it, who felt drawn to Chad’s family the same way he felt drawn to hers. “She really is.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

“So,” Ben began casually after wrapping up a private meeting with Chad regarding the potential of a magic school. “You and Jay, huh?”

Chad was caught off guard by the comment even though he really shouldn’t be. The first clue that Ben wanted something from him was when the king didn’t immediately rush off to his next appointment, instead helping Chad put away his reports and trading small talk like he didn’t have a hundred other things to do.

At first Chad had been flattered, thinking that Ben had wanted to spend time with him, but now that he’d voiced his innocuous question, Chad realized he was just interested interrogating his actual friend’s latest squeeze. 

“Yeah,” Chad said after he had managed to reorient himself, shifting from _friend_ to _respected colleague_ in under a second. “It would seem that way.”

“I’m glad,” Ben said, seeming to mean it. Then again, Ben seemed to mean everything he said. Chad often suspected he didn’t have a dishonest bone in his body, which made him a greater man than Chad would ever be. “He’s been restless, these past few years. I think you’ll be good for him.”

It wasn’t the commentary Chad had expected, which made it so perfectly Ben. The king wasn’t going to give out death threats – that was Mal’s job. Ben’s was to kill Chad with kindness, to offer up his own subtle threats about his expectations for Jay’s happiness. 

Such was the way of royals. 

“I hope so,” Chad replied honestly, because ‘ _I’ll try_ ’ seemed pathetic even for him. 

“Yeah?” Ben asked, smiling, but there was a low sort of challenge. “Then I’m glad for that too. Honestly, I didn’t see it coming, but Mal and Evie called it from a mile away.”

“Because of the party,” Chad said, plastering on a small grin even though he felt jumpy inside, off balance.

“No, before that,” Ben hummed, waiting for Chad to shoulder his satchel before following him out into the bright halls of the capitol building. “Mal and Jay started following your social media presence when you started making all those speeches to gather support for the Isle reforms. And that was before you pushed to have Sardinia allowed an exception to the magic ban.”

Chad wasn’t sure why Ben was telling him this. He suspected the king wanted to reinforce what Jay was looking for when dating Chad, that he wanted Prince Chadwick and not insecure Kit, but he wasn’t really sure. It seemed a bit mean for Ben, but Ben could be a bit mean when the beast took over.

One of the few times Chad’s father had engaged with Chad’s childhood post his mother’s death was the last time Chad had stayed over at Auradon Castle, and it became the _last time_ Chad stayed because Chad might have accidentally set Ben off and gotten his arm broken.

They didn’t frame it like that, of course. They’d wandered away from their keepers, Chad had fell.

As a result of his irresponsibility, he’d been locked away at home, where he was safe and sound. 

He and Ben hadn’t talked about it when Chad had finally gone to school in Auradon. Chad supposed it wasn’t important enough to warrant conversation. 

“I…” Chad trailed off, unsure, and even more thrown because Ben was still following him. Perhaps he’d set the afternoon aside for an interrogation. “I didn’t know.”

“Yeah,” Ben chuckled. “They didn’t tell anyone. I think they were having trouble rectifying who you are now with who you were before.”

Chad was unable to hide his wince. “Yeah,” he said, keeping his gaze pointedly ahead. “I don’t blame them.”

“Hey,” Ben’s voice was soft when he touched Chad’s shoulder, actually touched him, and his grip wasn’t too strong or filled with subtle threat. “We didn’t know.”

“What?” Chad asked, lost at the sudden turn in conversation.

Ben sighed. “Jay told us,” he explained. “Me and Mal, I mean. He told us about how your family was back then.” And then, while Chad was still processing that mild betrayal (or maybe it wasn’t, he’d never told Jay it was a secret, he’d just thought- well, maybe he was just stupid), Ben continued with, “I’m sorry. I should have… you were my friend-”

“Ben,” Chad said, his voice sounding tight. “It’s behind us.”

And things were better, now. Obviously, Chad needed to have a conversation with Jay about privacy, but aside from that, things were going fine. 

“Still,” Ben said, looking tragically wounded. “I am sorry.”

“And you’re forgiven,” Chad said, wondering if that was what the king was looking for. Absolution for a remnant of guilt so he could go about his blissful existence.

For whatever reason, that made Ben’s features tense in a worried expression before it seemed to melt away, just as quickly as it had come. “Thank you,” he said, entirely genuine. “Where are you heading now?”

For as rough as the conversation had been before now, Chad really shouldn’t be surprised by the abrupt change. As it was, he recovered in less than a second, shifting into an easy smile. “Fairy Godmother’s office,” he said. “Down at the school. I’m picking up Bella for lunch. She wanted me to show her my favorite Central Auradon restaurant.”

Perhaps because she kept asking him questions about school (he suspected it was because she would be going to one soon, and not just the private kindergarten classes they had for the upper nobility of Sardinia) and he only had so many positive anecdotes. A solid handful where about the places he visited because he couldn’t talk about the friends he had, and while that always served to make his father look pained, it adequately fed Bella’s curiosity, and gave them a list of places to visit together. 

“Oh?” Ben said, his brows quirking in interest. “Mind if I tag along? I haven’t had lunch either, and I could always use more Bella time.”

“She feels that way too,” Chad said instead of asking why Ben would want to do that. But it wasn’t like he could turn away the king. “And sure, of course you can join us.”

“Great,” Ben said, like it was indeed great. 

Weirdo.

Ben rode with him over to the school, smiling at the car seat affixed to the back seat of the limo and the assorted children’s toys tucked away in a side bucket. Ben’s smile held out all the way to Fairy Godmother’s office where it managed to get wider, catching sight of Chad’s little miss drawing a crayon picture with such intensity one might think she had been commissioned.

Fairy Godmother caught sight of them first, blinking up from her paperwork to offer Chad a bright grin. “Hello, sweetheart,” she said, making Chad blush down to his toes, the same as always. “Did you have a productive meeting?”

“Very,” Chad said, grinning when his daughter looked up from her picture, blinking owlishly before realizing he was there.

“Daddy!” she chirped, throwing down her crayon so she could hurl herself across the room and tackle Chad’s legs. “Daddy! Fairy Godmother let me watch Tourney Practice and then we had juice and now I’m drawing her a picture and- hello, King Ben!” His child had the forbearance to manage a wobbly curtsey that had been drilled into her by her etiquette teacher (who was patient and kind and rewarded in stickers and did not punish mistakes with rulers slapped against hands or bottoms or locking kids in closets, like Chad’s had been). 

“Hi, Bella,” Ben greeted, offering the small princess a bow in turn. “It seems like you’ve had a very full day.”

“And it’s going to get fuller!” Bella declared, literally hopping with joy. “Daddy’s going to show me his favorite restaurant and his favorite bookshop and we’re going to take pictures for Jay!”

“So I heard,” Ben hummed, lying smoothly to cover the fact Chad had forgotten to mention the last two things. “I’ll be joining you, if that’s alright.”

Bella squinted up at him, considering this, making Chad want to shake his head in despair. “Alright,” she settled on. “I suppose if I can share my daddy with Jay, I can share him with you too.”

“It isn’t exactly the same, pumpkin,” Chad tried to explain, but Bella was already waving him off, returning to her private drawing nook Fairy Godmother had set aside for her so she could dutifully pack away all of her drawing implements.

Well, like father like daughter. 

“And what do we say to grandma?” Chad asked when Bella was good to go.

“Thank you!” Bella cheered, giving Fairy Godmother one last stubborn hug. “And I love you. And please tell Aunt Jane and Uncle Carlos that I love them as well. Please.”

“Oh, I will, sweet pea,” Fairy Godmother hummed, running a hand over Bella’s soft curls. “I will.”

“In that case, goodbye!” Bella said, and then she was off, waiting long enough to snag Chad’s hand before she was pulling them out into the hallway. “Is it true you went here too, Mr. King?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at Ben. “You went to school with my daddy?”

“For a few years, yes,” Ben said, smiling as he flanked Bella’s other side. “For Junior High and the first year and a half of high school.”

“And then daddy went on his quest,” Bella chirped. She never seemed to tire of Chad’s tales of the Outerlands, seeming endlessly proud that her father was a hero. “And he got me as a reward!”

“The best reward,” Chad reminded her, earning a bright smile that never failed to make his heart warm.

“And you’re _my_ best reward,” she promised, her small fingers squeezing onto Chad’s hand good and tight. “Hey,” she said, offering her other hand up to Ben, who after a surprised beat, took it. “Swing me!”

“Bella…” Chad warned.

“Please,” she amended. “Swing me, _please_.”

Ben looked to Chad, following his lead, and the prince sighed. They were outside already. It wouldn’t take long to get to the car.

“Okay,” Chad allowed, earning a small whoop from Bella. 

Ben was careful, watching Chad when he they lifted Bella off the ground, trying to match his force. It was easy to get lost in the sound of Bella’s giggles, in her easy delight at being lifted half a foot off the ground. It was one of the reasons Chad was developing the floating charm in the first place, but honestly, it was likely because he’d do anything for his daughter.

He didn’t know if he was spoiling her. He didn’t know if he was doing right by her. He could only hope that he was coming close, because she was his, and he had promised Fairy Godmother that he’d try. 

“So,” Ben said when they were settling into the car, Chad double checking the straps of Bella’s car seat, much to her displeasure. “Your favorite restaurant?”

“It’s nothing special,” Chad said, keeping his face turned away so Ben wouldn’t see him blush. 

He almost wished he hadn’t given that description, because now Ben would know this place had extra meaning to Chad, would expect it to be fancy and grand, when it really was far from that. 

“I doubt that,” Ben hummed, but then he started engaging Bella before Chad could argue, asking her about Tourney practice until she gave an enthusiastic recap. 

Because Ben had grown up in the public eye, he didn’t react when they pulled up outside a small café in a nondescript area of town – charming and well-kept but far from fancy. It was tucked next to a bookshop, and Chad had discovered both in his mindless wanderings to make Doug think that he had friends, that he had a place to go aside from their dorm room. 

“Nice place,” Ben said without irony when the hostess seated them, taking them up to the private second floor that had pretty much been Chad’s retreat the entirety of his Auradon Prep career.

“Thanks,” Chad said, hiding his face by pretending to help Bella with her menu. 

When they were winding down for dessert, Bella drinking milk from her kid’s cup with chocolate smeared across her lips, her hazel eyes watching Ben intently as he folded yet another children’s menu into a flower for her, the king would look up and pin Chad with a smile so bright it threatened to leave Chad speechless.

“I can see why you like this place so much,” he said, humming as he made another fold. “I don’t blame you for keeping it to yourself. It’s like its own corner of paradise.”

Truthfully, Chad loved the café so much because it was one of the few places he had gone as an unsupervised thirteen-year-old and the staff had let him eat undisturbed, alone. They let him hide away from the paparazzi and read books or do homework while he ate, and they didn’t make an effort to ask him about his parents or his guardians or where his friends were. 

It was a place that had given him free cake when he came to spend his birthday here alone, and his waiter, a harried undergrad from Auradon University, had gathered the chefs and the busboys and the hostess to all sing Chad happy birthday. They hadn’t even said anything when he’d started crying, or accepted his obnoxiously large tip, easily three times the cost of his meal.

It had been his own corner of paradise, but it was one he had hoped to never need. 

Eventually, he didn’t.

“Yeah,” Chad said, swallowing roughly and making another futile attempt to clean Bella’s face. “It really is.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

Later, the gossip mags would run the picture of Ben and Chad swinging Bella on several of their covers, and Ben was so distinctly Ben and Chad was so markedly Jay’s that they didn’t even try the tacky _‘Trouble in Paradise?_ ’ angle. Instead, they celebrated royal lifelong friends and ran a few pictures of Ben and Chad in their youth to go beside some brilliant pictures of Bella from last month’s charity teatime. 

Online, Chad noticed a comment on one of the articles buried deep below the others, some user noting how much Bella seemed to look like both of them. Chad managed to keep the comment suppressed before it was removed altogether, and no one else spoke up to notice any kind of similarities between Bella and her two fathers. 

And hopefully, nobody would.

-:-:-:-:-:-

He seemed to see more of Ben, after that. 

Chad already saw him quite a lot for legislature work – Chad on the committee to help create new plans for the United States of Auradon while his father represented Sardinia in the Core Council. Chad was in Ben’s place of work at least two days a week, sometimes three depending on his own duties back home, so it wasn’t unexpected for him to run into the king frequently in his efforts to make the world a better place.

What was unexpected was the sudden influx of social invitations Chad received after his accidental lunch with Ben. It seemed that the casual affair had reminded Ben they were supposed to be friends, or at least, that they had been ‘friends’ back in school. Or maybe Ben remembered that Chad was going to be leader of one of the most magic-centric kingdoms in all of Auradon going forward and decided it would benefit him to create a stronger bond with Chad. 

They were all likely possibilities, and while Chad struggled to nail down which exactly was Ben’s motivation for seeking a new interest in him, the king seemed content to drag Chad out on lunch invitations he couldn’t really turn down. At first they took a tour of relaxed but dignified cafes that were located near the capitol building, discussing work and hashing out extra report details over food. And then, suddenly, Chad found himself on a picnic because the weather was ‘ _just so nice_ ’, which was unquestionably strange until he saw the way Ben soaked up the sun. 

It made him realize the guy was probably stuck indoors all the time and probably desperate for any kind of outdoor retreat. From that point on, Chad requested that they sit outside at the cafes they visited, or encouraged Ben to take walks with him so they could stretch their legs and get the blood flowing for more effective work. 

It was a weird sort of balance, but Chad was growing to like it. 

At least until things changed.

“Aw, rats,” Ben said, glaring at his phone as he and Chad made their way to the limo, Ben eager to herd them towards a new Maldonian restaurant that had opened downtown. “Looks like I just got shoved into a last-minute meeting.”

Chad checked his phone to see if he’d gotten a similar notification, but it must have been something that was reserved for the Core Council rather than legislative book nerds such as himself. “Hey, no worries. These things happen. We’ll try the restaurant another day.”

“No,” Ben said, his mouth setting in a determined frown. “I promised you pasta. You deserve pasta.”

“Ben,” Chad sighed, because in all the time they’d spent together, Chad was beginning to realize the king had a thing about breaking plans, mostly that he felt incredibly guilty for letting his civic duty interfere with the people he interacted with on a regular basis. Chad, of all people, understood the duties of a king and how they were to be prioritized over all else, but Ben refused to hear it. 

“Wait,” Ben said, his posture straightening when he caught sight of something in the distance. “I have an idea. Mal!”

The king waved enthusiastically, enough to pull the queen – who’d been walking with Evie, no doubt on their way to their own lunch – towards them with a quirked brow.

“Hey, guys!” Evie cheered when they got closer. “Mal and I were about to have lunch, but I got called into a meeting.”

“I did too,” Ben said, holding up his phone. “But hey, this works out.” He herded his wife over to Chad’s side. “You two can try out the new restaurant and tell us how it is and we’ll go do boring meeting stuff.” He held his arm out to Evie. “It’s perfect, everyone wins.”

“But-” Chad said, looking over to Mal who was definitely considering a stink face.

“Yes, totally perfect!” Evie rushed to agree. “Have fun, Mal. And _be nice_.”

“I’m always nice,” Mal huffed, crossing her arms defensively while Ben and Evie strolled back into the capitol building, leaving Chad bamboozled with an annoyed queen. 

“Um…” Chad said, shifting his feet. “We don’t actually have to go to lunch.”

“Yeah we fucking do,” Mal scoffed, nudging him into the limo. “Because if we don’t, Ben and Evie are going to give me shit for it.”

Chad followed her lead even though he didn’t want to, settling inside the familiar limousine. “Yeah, but I could always say I had a Bella issue. Or that something happened back in the workshop-”

“Chad,” Mal sighed, flopping back against the leather cushions. “They know our relationship is all… strained,” she settled on. “If you bail out, they’ll think I scared you off.”

“That’s stupid,” Chad sniffed. “We’re adults. We’re allowed to be awkward acquaintances.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” Mal said, looking validated and conflicted that this validation came from Chad. “That’s what I said, but _no_ – since Jay’s dating you and you’re like, Ben’s new Auradon BFF, we-” She motioned between them. “Need to find a way to get along. So.” She crossed her arms, shifted, then re-crossed them. “You got any new videos of your kid?”

“Only a million,” Chad said, gratefully latching onto the permanent distraction that was his daughter and moving to sit next to the queen so they could both look at his phone. “She had her first ballet recital last week. She was horrible.”

“Yeah,” Mal laughed. “Your kid doesn’t seem like the ballet type.”

“Sardinian tradition, I’m afraid,” Chad sighed when he pulled up the video. “She’s much more interested in Jazz and Tapdancing, which is leverage I can hopefully use when she needs to start taking ballroom classes.”

“ _Ugh_.” Mal made a face. “I didn’t like that shit and I learned it as an adult.”

“Here’s a secret,” Chad began with a grin. “None of us like to learn that shit. At least not until high school, when we can use it to find our fabled ‘happily ever afters’. But before then, when we have to learn it? Nothing but awkwardness. It’s terrible.” 

“Ah, the life and trials of a young royal,” Mal mused, but there didn’t seem to be any sarcasm in it. If anything, she was supportive. “Now, show me that dance recital.”

“You got it,” Chad said, and did just that. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Lunch wasn’t horrible.

It wasn’t exactly relaxed either, but Chad and Mal were both well-versed in the art of negotiation and as such managed to find a sort of middle ground on which they could work out their issues. Mal asked him questions about Bella, about his workshop and the magic he was researching, and Chad asked Mal about Evie and Carlos, about her art, looked at pictures on her phone and gave what feedback he could. He was delighted to see a picture of Bella amongst Mal’s sketches, the young princess dressed in her fluffy party dress from the twins’ birthday, her hair wild and expression one of unrelenting delight as she dashed across the lawn. 

“Do you take commissions?” Chad asked, staring down at the picture in hopeless pride. “Can I get a painting of this? Or anything of Bella? It’s beautiful.”

“You really think so?” Mal asked, seeming half-coy but underneath there was doubt, perhaps. Concern. “You’re not just biased towards the subject?”

“It’s all beautiful, Mal,” Chad said, scrolling back to see a picture of Evie cuddling her twins, of Carlos running with his dogs. “Royal paintings – they’re posed, stuffy, because we want to leave behind these legacies that go beyond the expectations of mortal men. But these?” He held up a photo of Ben passed out on the couch, a thick novel clutched to his chest. “These are real. These are small moments of life that you’ve managed to capture, and I um… I think that’s far more substantial, far more lovely, than any posed shot someone could manage.”

“Huh,” Mal said after a moment, her cheeks dusted in a light blush. Perhaps she was embarrassed on Chad’s behalf. “Now I know what to get you for your birthday, at least.”

“I’d be honored,” Chad said. “Truly honored, Mal, for any of them. You don’t need me to tell you this, but you’re very gifted.” He smiled, feeling truly relaxed for the first time since they’d started this lunch. “Auradon is very lucky to have you as its queen.”

For a moment, Mal seemed to savor this comment, but then something shifted in her features, her head ducking slightly. “Even if I um… if I’m struggling to-”

“Your time will come,” Chad said, because her struggle to get pregnant was not something she needed to elaborate on. “It _will_ , Mal. I’ve um… I’ve been doing some research. Subtle research,” he clarified.

“You have?” Mal asked, genuinely surprised by this.

“Of course,” Chad said, confused. “You’re hurting, and I wanted- if I could help, I wanted to. Because you and Ben are two of the best people I know, and you deserve good things.”

It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. They were the best rulers he knew, and Jay and Jane and Evie said nothing but good things about Mal and Ben. The pirates did too. Chad didn’t really know them because he hadn’t been afforded the opportunity, but everything he’d seen, everything he’d heard, had indicated they were the very best kind of people. Auradon truly was lucky to have them.

Mal seemed to be frozen still as she stared at him, eyes wide as she processed this information. 

And then she blinked, and the moment had passed. “Gimme your phone,” she said, making grabby hands in his direction.

“Um… okay,” Chad said, handing it over as requested. “Why?”

“Because I’m giving you my number,” Mal said when she started to do just that. “Here.” She passed her phone over to him. “Put your number in mine and then we can text and talk to each other without Ben having to act as an intermediary. I’ll text you art and you’ll text me pictures of Bella and we can brainstorm magic stuff together.”

“O…kay,” Chad said, confused but compliant. And then a thought occurred to him. “Are we friends now?”

“Yep.” Mal grinned, eyes bright. “We’re friends now. I have hopped aboard the Chad-train.”

“Sorry,” Chad said, scratching the back of his head. “It um- might be a bit of a crazy ride.”

“Not sure why you think that’s a deterrent,” Mal grinned. “But whatever. Choo-choo, motherfucker.”

And. Well.

That probably summarized it best.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Hey,” Jay greeted when he slid into the shower that night, boxing Chad against the wall for a few kisses before turning him back towards the spray so they could wash off. “I heard you made a new friend today.”

“Apparently?” Chad was still confused by how, exactly, it had occurred. “I don’t know what happened.”

“You were really fucking charming is what happened,” Jay informed him with a grin. “Mal tried to fight it but couldn’t hold out, the poor girl. And now my best friend likes my lover, _finally_.”

“Yeah?” Chad said, more focused on being referred to as a ‘lover’ than anything else.

Jay quirked a brow at him. “You like that?” he asked, letting his hands settle on Chad’s hips. “ _Lover?_ ”

Chad shivered, allowing his fingers to tentatively curl around Jay’s shoulders. “Y-Yeah,” he said. “I do.”

“Fucking great,” Jay declared, and then he was dropping to his knees. “I’ll be sure to use it more often then, lover.”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad whined when the Agraben started mouthing between the prince’s legs, licking and teasing Chad until he was shaking.

“So good for me,” Jay mused when he urged Chad to sit on the bench built into the stall, the Tourney player settling between Chad’s legs like there was nowhere else he’d like to be. “So good for _us_ , Chad, you don’t even know.”

“You could um- show me?” Chad pressed, trying to be coy.

He wasn’t sure why he made the effort, Jay just about always called his bluff.

“Oh,” Jay began in a low drawl. “I’ll _show_ you alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the feedback!! It’s greatly appreciated. Like, I’m glad you’re enjoying the nice, fluffy times, because eventually we’ll get to the point where things get a bit off the rails – as is my way – so hold onto this light feeling for now ^_^
> 
> Story notes: 
> 
> A sunroom is like a closed in patio. I discovered through Wikipedia that is has a bunch of different names, but sunroom was the one I was familiar with.
> 
> There is a website that will help you determine whether you need a car seat for a limo or not. Also, apparently kids need car seats until they’re like, ten or eleven, which was not a thing I remember from my own childhood, but props to evolving safety regulations. This is now a thing that you know.
> 
> I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but I have a personal headcanon where the United States of Auradon is ruled by a Core Council – which has representatives from all the kingdoms. They work in conjunction with Ben, who is king of the United States of Auradon, while his father is king of Central Auradon, the kingdom in which Beauty and the Beast took place. 
> 
> Okay, so according to some wiki article or other, the Maldonia language is based on Italian. As such, I based the kingdom off of Italy, which is why they’re eating pasta at a Maldonian restaurant.
> 
> I always forget I wrote the line ‘Choo-choo, motherfucker’, but if that is not the height of my writing career, I don’t know what is ^_^
> 
> Until next time :)


	6. The Anniversary

“Okay,” Chad said to the restless, squirming child waiting at his feet, doing his best not to seem like he was hovering while a hundred percent doing just that. “And you know I’ll only be a phone call away, right?”

“ _Daddy_ ,” Bella sighed, sharing a conspiratorial look with Harmon Gad, who managed the emotional maturity to look sympathetic. “Yes, I know.”

“And while you’re here,” Chad continued, much to Uma’s growing amusement. “Mr. Gil and Captain Uma are the boss, okay? You have to follow their rules, unless-”

“It endangers me or Auradon,” Bella continued with an exasperated pout. “I know, I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t think you are,” Chad said, crouching down so he could fiddle with her bow, much to her open displeasure. “But this is your first time staying over here, and I want you to understand that Captain Uma is not nearly as susceptible to your puppy eyes as your grandfathers.”

“I would _never_ ,” Bella gasped, a definite echo of Chad’s father that had a tiny hand pressed against her chest.

“Yes, you would,” Chad countered, managing to find a grounding point in the swell of fondness that followed. “And I admire that tenacity, but you aren’t to use it against Captain Uma.”

“What about Mr. Harry?” Bella asked, eyeing the first mate that was lingering just over Uma’s shoulder, his brows drawn high in a look of amusement. “Do I have to listen to him?”

“Only if Mr. Gil or Captain Uma tell you to,” Chad offered, ignoring the indignant sputters that followed.

“Wait just a second,” Harry began to drawl in that thick accent of his, Harmon Gad looking up eagerly, as though his father’s potential annoyance was a source of entertainment rather than concern. “I’ll have ye know-”

“Save it, Harry,” Uma interrupted, because they all knew who had tried to hurl himself down the highest waterfall in Deep Jungle just last week, and it wasn’t any of _them_.

The first mate closed his mouth obediently, his arms crossing his chest in a defensive huff, and Gil leaned over to pat one broad hand on the first mate’s shoulder in a comforting squeeze, looking more like a gentle giant every day. From her position in his other arm, Ulla tried to lean over and mimic her blond father, which was a cute enough sight that Chad was almost able to pull out of his anxiety tailspin. 

Chad refocused his efforts on Bella, and fixing the imaginary slights with her outfit while she humored him. “Be safe,” he told her. “Be nice, and if you get scared-”

“ _Daddy_ ,” she groaned.

“-it’s okay to call me or your grandfathers or Fairy Godmother.”

“I’m not gonna interrupt your fancy sleepover,” Bella insisted, making Chad’s face flood with an embarrassed heat. “And I’ll be fine. Can I go play now?”

“Hugs first,” Chad said, and he was treated to an irritated-but-fierce hug from his daughter before she was bolting off with Harmon, the two of them exchanging high fives before Harmon pulled them into the pirates’ not-so-modest beachside retreat. 

“I’m serious,” Chad said, turning his attention to Uma, who he knew was also humoring him. “You can call for anything. I- sorry, it’s not that I doubt your capabilities, I just- It’s the first time she’s spent the night outside the castle-”

Spent the night with people that weren’t family, who understood the trial they were getting into with the fierce princess of Sardinia.

“Relax, slick,” Uma soothed, patting his shoulder while Gil gave him a comforting thumbs up before disappearing back inside, following the destructive path of their children. “Single parenthood is intense, we get it. If anything happens, I’ll call you. _And_ I’ll send pictures.” Chad hadn’t wanted to ask, but now that it’d been offered, he felt his shoulders relax with palpable relief. “Now, go enjoy your anniversary.”

Chad’s blush, which he had just managed to get in check, returned tenfold, furious and blazing. “It’s not- it isn’t-”

“Sweet evil,” Harry groaned, rolling his eyes before he disappeared into the house and left the mess that was Chad to Uma, safely declaring the issue not his problem.

“Chad,” Uma said calmly, like she knew Chad had been keeping track of the first time Jay had come to the castle, like she knew it’d been exactly once year since they had started the little whatever they had. “You look good.”

The comment brought his unraveling thoughts to a furious halt. “I do?” he asked, looking down at the suit Dizzy had helped him pick out. “You really think so? Wait, was that sarcastic?”

“No,” she said, and when he looked back to her, the captain’s gaze was fond. Dare Chad even think it, supportive. “It was not. You look good, and you’re going to knock him dead, so don’t freak out about it.”

“I…” Chad shifted his weight, thought about the million things he never told anyone, the new anxieties that had grown in the wake of his and Jay’s relationship. “It seems too good, sometimes. I don’t think I deserve it.”

Uma stared at him for a moment, long and hard, before the smallest of grins pulled at her lips. “Yeah, I feel that way all the damn time. But trust me, with something like this? You savor it. Because even if it goes badly – not that it will – at least you’ve had a taste, right? You’ve got that memory. No one can steal that from you.”

Of all the people Chad knew, Uma was probably the most familiar with having basic liberties stolen from her fingertips. Having good things, decent things, dragged out of her hands just as she managed to find a new equilibrium, just as the ground had settled underneath her feet – but she’d never allowed it to shake her. She’d gotten pregnant out of wedlock, and while Chad didn’t know the exact specifics of Harmon’s conception, he knew, like Bella, it hadn’t exactly been planned.

But Uma and her crew had never allowed that to shake them, and like most trials, they had come out the other side stronger.

Chad wanted that with Jay. Wanted a bond that would support him, that he could support in turn. Wanted something that became more resilient the more opposing forces it weathered.

“Thanks, Uma,” Chad said, swallowing the advice and clutching it close to his chest, knowing he would need it going forward. “For everything.”

“You’re welcome, blondie,” she said, trailing off with a fond chuckle that offered Chad a spark of hope. “Now go make him eat your heart out. And, you know, maybe something else.”

“I’m leaving now,” Chad said, his voice awkwardly loud, and he retreated to the sound of Uma’s delighted cackles, a hope growing in his chest that things would be okay.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Jay picked Chad up from the summer home Chad’s family kept in Central Auradon, the one used when they were called in for important council sessions, or theoretically to check on their children attending Auradon Prep. Chad’s father hadn’t used it much himself, but the place ended up being just as much a home for Chad and Bella as Sardinia castle. He had renovated one of the rooms for his daughter’s usage and added a smaller workshop in the backyard of the property for his own, until the respectable villa was a comfortable, yet slightly less bustling, home away from home. 

Jay’s vehicle of choice was a red sportscar with gold accents that managed to be tasteful rather than obnoxious. He walked to the door to get Chad, making no effort to hide the way he looked Chad over from head to toe before offering his arm and guiding Chad into his car. It was a routine they’d done a couple times before, in fancy suits, even, only this time there was a palpable difference that wasn’t imposed by Chad’s expectations alone. Jay seemed to register the meaningfulness of the occasion, for all that he seemed perfectly at ease – trading their usual small talk and poking fun at Chad’s choice of radio stations – but Bella wasn’t in the car, so why wouldn’t Chad try to soak up as much jazz as he could? He’d been Doug’s roommate all through junior high and part of high school, he’d grown to associate the music with a level of warm comfort. 

“Nerd,” Jay teased when they pulled up to the restaurant, passing off his keys to the valet with an easy grin.

“I’m going to tell Evie you said that,” Chad laughed when Jay drew up beside him, the prince pointedly ignoring the few paparazzi lingering near the doors of the restaurant, hoping to get a lucky scoop.

“Do it,” Jay hummed. “I dare you. I might be forced to tell her about those Hanoven mystical arts you’ve been researching in your backyard.”

“That wasn’t- that was _Balin_ ,” Chad insisted, though even that was more mirthful than offended. 

His breath caught when Jay’s fingers brushed against his, and while they usually stayed away from public displays of affection, that time Jay took his hand, tangling their fingers together like it was nothing, and Chad knew he was blushing like some dopey schoolkid while Jay looked cool as always, gazing steadily forward when they moved into the restaurant. Chad didn’t care though. Uma was right, he needed to savor the moment, so he did that, all the way up to the hostess stand. 

“Two for Jadir,” Jay said, flashing the hostess a flirtatious grin even when he squeezed Chad’s hand tighter. The restaurant Jay had brought them to was one of the nicest in Central Auradon – Lasserre, known for its quality and discretion when catering to certain clientele. Chad had eaten there a couple of times on business, taking advantage of the restaurant’s private rooms, but this was the first time he’d been there on a date. It was a humbling experience.

“Mr. Jadir. Your highness,” the hostess greeted, not so much as batting an eye at their close proximity. “We have one of our private rooms overlooking Belle’s Square prepared for you. I hope this meets your satisfaction.”

“It does,” Jay assured her, tugging Chad close. “Thank you, Veronique.”

“In that case, allow me to-” 

“Jay?” The voice, unmistakable as anyone but Ben’s, called out behind them. “Chad?”

Chad didn’t imagine how Jay seemed to tense upon hearing the king, his smile freezing before evening out into something less congenial than before. Perhaps it was more predatory, a front, though it could very well be that Chad was overthinking things.

“Ben,” Jay drawled when they turned around, moving to greet the royal couple that just happened to enter the establishment behind them. “Mal.”

“Jay,” Mal greeted evenly, looking pleased by this surprise. “You guys here for dinner?”

“Yes, actually,” Jay said, his fingers tightening around Chad’s hand, though this seemed more protective than reassuring. “We were just about to be seated.”

“Great!” Ben chirped in that general way that made you think it really _was_ great, even if you hadn’t been inclined to think that much originally. “We’ll join you.”

Mal, who had to know the importance of today’s date, let out a low hum. “Yes,” she said, her lips pulling up in a mischievous smirk. “We should. It really has been too long.”

“ _Mal_ ,” Jay said, low and warning while the hostess traded some quiet whispers with a waiter, who set off in a cool but expedited pace to add two additional place settings to their room.

Mal’s expression was positively radiant. “Don’t dodge my phone calls,” she said somewhat melodiously, and then the hostess was leading their amended group up to their private room, Chad’s head still spinning with how it had all come to be.

It wasn’t ideal, but adaptability was an important part of royal life, along with catering to those in great positions of power. Chad felt his nerves melting away when the precedent of keeping Ben contented settled into place, and his small grin was traded out for the one he used in front of cameras, the classic _Chad Charming_ vibe that the public so openly adored. 

Jay was less inclined to be immediately accepting when he slid into his chair, still throwing grumpy looks at Mal that she countered with a sweet flutter of her lashes, but Chad paid her no mind. There would be other dates. 

Assuming all went well, that was. 

Chad took a moment to grab Jay’s left hand under the table, and that, at least, seemed to pull Jay’s focus, had him shifting into that small, fond grin Chad loved so very much when the waiter passed out the menus.

“Thank you for letting us join you guys,” Ben said with a bright smile. “I was actually hoping to catch up on any new Bella adventures, if you had any.”

Immediately, the false confidence Chad had put up gave way to his genuine enthusiasm, because there would never be a moment where he did not want to talk about Bella. “She discovered spicy food last week,” Chad gushed, pulling out his phone so he could show the king the accompanying pictures. “She doesn’t like it, but she’s determined to build up a tolerance so she can be like Jay.”

At that, Jay puffed up with a pride so blatant that it had Mal rolling her eyes. “Your kid has excellent taste in role models,” the Agraben drawled.

“That she does,” Chad agreed, making no effort to hide his fondness. “Though I wish she would stop straining her taste buds like this. She’s going to make herself sick, and then instead of having a rational discussion about it, Merlin’s going to invent a potion or something that will do away with the spiciness pangs and she’ll be one step closer to completely disregarding the limitations of common man.”

“A pallet restoration potion, huh,” Mal said, furrowing her brows in thought. “I have a few ideas for that.”

“Share them,” Ben prompted, and while Chad had no supporting evidence, he was pretty sure the king was playing footsy with his wife, if her brief flash of annoyance and then amusement was anything to go off of.

“If you insist,” Mal said, before launching into her theories.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Despite Jay’s initial frustration, it was actually a nice dinner. They discussed an array of topics, but all of them were easy things – nothing that had to do with work. They brushed on their childhoods – Ben and Chad sharing the trials and tribulations of a young royal forced to behave at high society affairs and Mal and Jay retelling some of their lighter anecdotes from running around the Isle. Chad went on about Bella, and then Ben coaxed Jay into talking about Tourney before the three of them badgered Mal into discussing the arts initiative she was instigating for the lower-income areas across Auradon. 

They were giggling with happiness by the time they got around to desert, drinking champagne (save for Chad, who had sparkling water) and making increasingly ridiculous toasts – toasts to Evie’s twins to stop teething soon, to Carlos’ dogs to not get fleas. Toasts to Gil perfecting his recipe for blueberry cobbler, to Uma in the hopes that she’d allow him to share it when he did, to Doug’s left toe (Chad lost the thread on how they got to that), and Harry’s self-preservation instincts, of which he had none. 

Chad was pretty sure they were meant to split the check but Ben disappeared under the illusion of going to the bathroom and when he came back the bill had been settled. Jay’s very mature response was to chuck one of the high-quality cloth napkins at the king’s head, and Ben must have been a little more out of it than they’d thought because instead of ducking he took it full in the face, which set off another round of laughter. 

“That was wonderful,” Ben said when they stepped out into the cool night air, squinting happily at the stars above them. “We should do that more often.”

“Maybe,” Jay allowed with a sniff, the very height of maturity.

“Definitely,” Mal countered, her eyes narrowed in challenge. “What do you guys want to do now?”

“Well,” Jay said, twining his fingers through Chad’s again. “ _We_ were going to walk the beach-”

“Excellent,” Mal said, and then she was crawling into Jay’s car, pulling Chad in after her with such relentless force that the prince had no choice but to accept or get a photo taken of him sprawled across the sidewalk. He didn’t see any paparazzi, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. “Let’s beach it up.”

Chad had no idea if Jay sighed or not, but he seemed to have settled into apathetic acceptance by the time he and Ben slid into the front seats, the king flashing Chad a bright smile before they were on the road.

Well… maybe Mal and Ben didn’t get a lot of friend-bonding time. That seemed like a reasonable explanation.

And also the only one.

So yeah, that was it. And maybe they didn’t have the best timing, but Chad couldn’t begrudge them for wanting to hang out with Jay. Chad _also_ liked spending time with the Tourney player. It was a feeling he could relate to.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Mal continued to take Chad hostage when they got to a private stretch of beach that was technically part of the Auradon Castle grounds. She clutched onto his hand and didn’t let go when she charged out onto the sandy shore, her heels clutched in one hand and laughter trailing in the wind, her good mood strong enough that even Chad’s minor uncertainty seemed buoyed.

“Hey,” she said when they set a path parallel to the water. “Tell me more about your magic stuff. I really want to visit, but there just isn’t any time.”

“I get it,” Chad laughed, thinking about his own chaotic schedule. About Bella and duties and Jay. “And I’d be happy to tell you about the workshop.”

“They probably think I’m shitty,” Mal said, her mood taking a sudden dip. “I’m a sorceress, the queen of Auradon, and I’ve never even seen the stuff you’re researching.”

“On the contrary,” Chad hummed, reveling in the way her spirit seemed to lift with an interested quirk of her brow. “They all think very highly of you. They know how hard it is to ignore a part of themselves, and yet you do that a majority of the time, all for the greater good of Auradon.” He squeezed her fingers, and was relieved when he felt her squeeze back. “They all admire you very much. Especially the Blue Fairy.”

“ _The_ Blue Fairy?” Mal said, incredulous – not of Chad, for once, but of the concept that someone so powerful could look up to her. “You’re shitting me.”

“I am not,” Chad pressed. “She’s proud to have you as a fellow fairy. You and Jane both.”

“Jane I could understand, but me…” Mal trailed off, her throat seeming to bob in a rough swallow. “I’m a dark fairy.”

“But not an evil one,” Chad pointed out. “Darkness means shadows, not ill will. You wield your shadows well, for good reason. She praises you for that.”

“ _Wicked_ ,” Mal whispered, sort of marveling to herself. “Could you… could you tell me some more about them?”

“Certainly,” Chad said, and he wasn’t sure what Ben and Jay were talking about behind them, but he found it didn’t matter much. He’d had his turn with Jay – had been hogging him all year. He could stand to share him some. Mal and Ben had definitely earned it. 

So he’d pass small talk with Mal and enjoy the stars, lifted up by the bubbling remnants of sparkling water and his love following fifteen feet behind, and know that those things were more than enough.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad wasn’t honestly sure how Ben and Mal ended up following them back to the Sardinia summer house. Auradon Castle was right there, and yet Ben and Mal followed them anyway, where they had another round of drinks that trailed into another exchange of stories in the lounge until Mal and Ben passed out curled against each other, cuddled close on one of the squishier sectionals Bella had concluded was ‘the best’.

“ _Finally_ ,” Jay murmured as soon as they realized the other two were out, and then Chad was being dragged from the room, pulled up the stairs with a clumsy exchange of kisses until Jay was maneuvering him onto his bed, the Tourney player stripping out of his suit the moment he was able to and looking at Chad with a sort of predatory hunger that made Chad’s stomach flip with a thrill of hope. “No,” Jay said when Chad started to undo his tie, the blond giving him a confused expression. “No, I wanna do that myself.”

“…oh,” Chad said, flushing, and then he stilled, watching as Jay managed to make a quick divestment of clothing look like a horrible tease until the man was climbing onto the bed, claiming Chad’s mouth in a fiery kiss as he started working on the buttons of his shirt.

“Love you,” Jay murmured between kisses, making Chad’s breath catch. “ _Fuck_ , watching you with them- just- love you, Kit. Chad. Love you.”

“Love you too,” Chad whispered, overwhelmed with such joy that he thought he might cry, would have if Jay hadn’t been so determined to become acquainted with every part of Chad, nuzzling and complimenting and touching everywhere, starved as though he was seeing it all for the first time. 

“You and me,” Jay said as he started to get Chad loose, pressing hot kisses to the hallow of his throat. “Okay? You and me.”

“Okay,” Chad breathed, and even though Jay didn’t expand on this, Chad knew exactly what he meant.

They didn’t really need to speak much after that, just reveled in the warm exchange of their affection, solid yet heightened like an unbalanced chemical reaction. There would be an explosion soon, but this- it was controlled, and Chad looked forward to the aftermath – knew Jay would be there with him to pick up the pieces. 

Knew it, and for once did not doubt. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad woke up with a sort of contentedness that seemed to radiate through his entire body, seeping into his skin before curling comfortably in his core, pulsing with each steady thrum of his heart. It was an all-encompassing thing, one that made him reluctant to wake up. Eventually, he strove for it, if only to make sure the steady warmth beneath his cheek was actually Jay, that the other man was still there, cuddling Chad, that it hadn’t been some sort of outlandish dream. 

He forced his eyes to blink open, savoring the feel of strong fingers carding through his hair, and when he looked up, it was to see Jay looking at him with a sort of incomprehensible expression – one far too complicated to consider this early in the morning, and yet-

Chad found that nowadays, he was a problem solver. A man of endless curiosity.

“What?” he asked, dragging his hand up Jay’s side and cataloging the faded scars that grazed his fingertips. “What is it?”

“It’s stupid,” Jay whispered, his voice uncharacteristically soft. “I just had what was probably the best sleep of my life, and I’m sitting here thinking about-”

“What?” Chad pressed, keeping his body loose, comforting. He offered no judgment in his eyes. 

He was, after all, the last person who should give it. 

“That night,” Jay said, tone careful, but even with the weight of sleep hindering his perception, Chad could tell that Jay was still torn up about this. “Back when… you were begging me to make it stop.” He continued carding his fingers through Chad’s hair, a sort of aimless patter that seemed to ground him. “You seemed so certain that I could put an end to it.”

“Sorry,” Chad murmured, ducking his head under the guise of nuzzling Jay’s throat. “I just- I figured since your dad was a sorcerer…”

“That’s just it,” Jay laughed, a bitter thing. “I’m the worst almost-sorcerer there is. I hung there while you were being attacked, watched while those things took you apart, and the entire time you were begging me to end it. Asking, _please_ , for me to help you.” He settled, and Chad held his silence, sensing that he wasn’t done. “You weren’t even mad, afterwards. You seemed so sure I could help you but I didn’t, and you weren’t even upset. At first that pissed me off, because I thought you expected that from me, for a villain kid to ignore you, but…” He trailed off, dropping his hand so it could wrap around Chad’s back. “I realized after you left that you didn’t really expect anyone to help you, so it wasn’t a surprise when that didn’t happen.”

“Jay…” Chad shivered, curling against the other man’s chest when he looked up, halfway to some kind of inarticulate form of desperation.

“No one seemed to miss you,” Jay said, and it struck like a hammer to Chad’s heart, made his breath catch and his throat feel tight. “No one seemed to care, they just kept moving, and I- I was so angry, because you were gone and it was impossible for me to ignore the loss of you, and I didn’t even know you. I thought…” His throat bobbed in a swallow; Chad entranced by every movement. “At first I thought it was because of the sex, because I’d seen you like that, all vulnerable and um… pretty.”

Pretty. Jay thought he’d been-

“But then I realized how much I’d come to depend on your presence, which was stupid, because I’d never talked to you all that much to begin with. I just came to count on overhearing you nitpick rules or watch you take forever to clean your equipment and jump into the shower as soon as you could or expect your mild commentary on Tourney and clothes and Audrey and I- I hated myself for missing you so much, because what were you to me?” He dropped his voice lower, his lips brushing against the top of Chad’s head. “…and what was I to you?”

“I was scared of you,” Chad admitted, pulling the words out that he had long since swallowed down.

“Of course,” Jay scoffed, his tone bitter. “Why wouldn’t you be?”

Chad flinched. “Not- not because of that,” he insisted. “It was the… it didn’t matter whose son you were, all that mattered was that you were unforgivably you. You were brave and bold and charismatic and strong – you were everything I wanted to be but wasn’t, you were everything I wanted but knew I couldn’t have, and I was… I was terrified of the crush I had on you. So I would nitpick rules and follow you out into the jungle to make sure you didn’t do anything stupid, because even if we weren’t friends…” Chad trailed off, squeezing his eyes shut as though he could somehow forget the decade’s worth of stupidity he had allowed to guide him for so long. “I could at least keep you safe,” he whispered. “Princes are supposed to protect the things. I just- I wanted to be a good prince.”

Jay was quiet for a long moment, and then he was tugging Chad up, making it so the prince had to stare him in the eyes. “You were a good prince,” he declared. “You _are_ a good one. And we’re not- we aren’t dumb kids anymore,” he pressed, sitting up so he could pull Chad into his lap, until they were sharing air and sharing space, so close they almost seemed to be one. “We don’t have to be scared anymore,” he whispered, one hand shifting to cup Chad’s jaw. “Scared of what we want. Of what-”

“Jay,” Chad murmured, feeling small for the first time in a while.

“I want you,” Jay said, firm and certain, and in that moment Chad knew he was wrecked, knew there was no going back, because he’d spent so much of his life without Jay, so much of it longing for him and believing himself to be totally unworthy of such might that if Jay was offering, there was no way Chad would ever be able to turn back. He was too greedy, too desperate and weak. 

“Jay,” Chad whispered, feeling like he was balancing precariously on a tipping point. “Don’t offer if you can’t-”

“I’m staying,” Jay said, resolute. “For as long as you’ll have me, please. I wanna be a part of your family. I wanna be yours.”

“Mine,” Chad echoed with a gasp, his eyes feeling painfully warm, wet with emotion. “Jay, _please-_ ”

“You don’t have to ask,” Jay assured him, clutching onto Chad’s hand. “You don’t have to ask ever again, Chad. I’m here, I’m staying.”

“ _Jay_.” Chad had no words, gave up on the useless things in favor of kissing him- kissing his lover, he guessed, he hoped, and even though Jay had all but spelled it out for him, it seemed too fortuitous to accept.

Jay repaid him by accepting his affections with gentle ease, making Chad’s heart swell when he held him close, angled his head to deepen the kiss, eager and willing and bright.

“Love you,” Jay murmured when they had to pull apart for air, the Agraben dusting Chad’s cheeks with chaste kisses. “Love you-”

“Love you,” Chad whispered, desperate and clinging. “Stay here, stay-”

“I’m staying,” Jay repeated, kept repeating, never seeming to tire of this uniform affirmation. “They’ll have to drag me away from you and your kid kicking and screaming. You and your whole magic convoy and your dad-”

“ _Jay_ ,” Chad breathed, throat tight. It was too much. It was not enough. It would consume him and he didn’t care, because for once he had everything, he had a family and a partner and a kingdom that was thriving and his very own happy ending, and maybe it didn’t involve searching through the entirety of his kingdom to find it, but in his opinion, it was just as meaningful.

“Chad,” Jay whispered, pushing him down against the sheets, and then it was an easy trade of reassurance and love, in celebration and victory of things that had taken too long to pass, and yet, had come at the exact right time.

Chad laughed, and Jay swallowed the noise with a kiss, likely intent to bestow upon Chad the ravishment of his life.

And Chad- he was eager for it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the feedback, guys!! Your support is greatly appreciated, and I’m glad you’re enjoying this exploration of the VKs’ adult lives :D
> 
> Story notes:
> 
> Deep Jungle is Tarzan’s territory.
> 
> Lasserre is an actual fancy restaurant in France, the kingdom Central Auradon is based on. And Balin is not an OC, but a character I borrowed from ‘The Hobbit’, who is basically the nicest badass dwarf grandpa you ever did meet.
> 
> I see you checking how many chapters are left in this bad boy. Wondering how it’s going to go all wrong. Well, let me tell you… it’s going to be ridiculous ;)
> 
> Until next time ^_^


	7. A New Proposal

After the first time, Jay had paused long enough to pull a small, velvet box from the drawer of the nightstand, flushing when he explained how Fairy Godmother and Merlin had helped him create this unique engagement ring – one that was imbued with the minimal magic Jay could offer, was simple but elegant, a gold band littered with light blue stones, absolutely perfect in every way.

It led to Chad throwing himself at Jay, pulling him close and climbing into the man’s lap until they were both worked up again. 

It was that time, with Jay splayed out on his back, Chad riding him like it was his damn job, that they remembered they had company.

They remembered this because Mal strolled into the room with a lazy toss of her hair, likely intent to inform them of breakfast or something before she froze, her eyes wide when she looked on the sight that was Chad and Jay mid-coitus.

Ben must have been right behind her, because about thirty seconds later the king walked in, sleep rumpled but cheerful. “Ask them if they want- oh.”

And then they just stared, both of them flushed with embarrassment, which was great, because Chad was pretty sure he was going to die from humiliation _right then_. 

“Mal,” Jay said, his voice strangled, cheeks tinged in a dark blush. “Get _out_.”

“Um.” Mal blinked and distinctly did not move. “Do we have to?”

“Fucking- _yes_ , you have to,” Jay snapped, and never was Chad more grateful that the door was behind him, because at least they couldn’t see his erection wavering against his stomach. “What kind of question is that?”

“It’s just-” Mal was walking closer, which was pretty much the last place she needed to be. “We could join you.”

What?

“ _What?_ ” Chad asked, knowing he sounded strangled, but Jay’s length was very much buried inside him and the king of Auradon was standing behind him and this was not the post-engagement sexual fantasy he had dreamed of.

“We could join you,” Mal repeated, her voice casual, like they were discussing the weather. 

Chad really, _really_ wanted Jay to tell her to fuck off – but in a nice friend-way, not in a bitter dirge that Chad would use if he could manage the coherence not to be humiliated. Chad wanted Jay to snarl and be defensive, exasperated even, except-

There was no missing the way the Agraben pulsed inside Chad, like he was into the idea, and when the prince looked down at his fiancé, the look of palpable _want_ on his face was unmistakable.

So.

That hurt, a little.

And were Chad brave, this would be a great place to have a conversation, to force a time out so they could have some adult-like communications where he explained his expectations for their relationship and what he was comfortable with and Jay did the same, but-

Chad was not brave.

Chad was, in fact, a giant, greedy coward.

And if Jay wanted something, it was in Chad’s best interest to give it to him, because if he didn’t, maybe Jay would leave. Maybe he would take back the engagement. Maybe he wanted to join Chad’s family but only if Chad stayed amendable and pretty.

So Chad weighed the odds very quickly and made a decision. 

He cleared his throat, making Jay’s gaze snap to his face, and shifted in a manner that could be considered bashful. “I um… wouldn’t mind that.”

While he had suspected Jay’s desires, it hurt more to see the way his breath caught, eyes dilating with want, with relief, before a grateful grin pulled across his face. 

“You’re too good to me,” he murmured, sitting up so he could kiss Chad, making the prince groan when his length scraped across delicate territory before resettling.

“B-Back at you,” Chad forced himself to whisper, forced himself to be shy, which lasted until he heard Mal’s enthusiastic _‘whoop!_ ’ and turned to saw the queen of Auradon stripping out of her rumpled formal dress. 

“Fucking _yes_ ,” she said when she got down to her bra and panties, crawling onto the bed and taking Jay’s face between her hands before- oh, she was kissing him, and he was kissing her back. Okay, that was- that was fine. 

Chad supposed if he had a super attractive longtime friend, he’d probably be okay making out with them as well. 

He was mulling that over before a force grabbed him from behind, and he flailed for half a second before he felt himself get pulled off of Jay. He found himself pressed into the sheets, blinking up at his attacker with wide eyes and-

It was Ben, of course. Obviously. It was Ben that was looking over Chad like he was the king’s next meal, his desire burning awfully close to the beast-like trance he’d fallen into all those years ago, before Chad had been made pregnant. 

“Ben,” Chad gasped, pressing a hand to his chest as he tried to calm his racing heart. “P-Please-”

“Sorry,” Ben laughed, tossing his head bashfully, immediately making Chad’s chest flood with relief. “I um- I got excited.”

“He got stupid,” Mal murmured between trading kisses with Jay. “Is more like it.”

“Sorry,” Ben repeated, scratching the back of his head before he started shifting out of his clothes. “Just um- give me a moment and then- I could-”

“He wants to fuck you,” Mal said, the queen now safely perched in Jay’s lap, one delicate hand wrapped around his member as she jerked it almost angrily, to um- Jay’s apparent delight. “He doesn’t want to ask, but he wants to fuck you.”

“Oh.” Chad blinked, like that wasn’t the feature of most of his nightmares-turned-sex-dreams. “Um… okay.”

Chad wasn’t sure what kind of response Ben had expected, but that wasn’t one, Chad guessed, because the king jolted so hard he actually fell off a bed, popping up a second later to look at Chad with wide eyes. “You mean that?” he asked, mostly trapped in disbelief. “You don’t have to. I’d be- I’m honored just to- if I could kiss you-”

“I mean it,” Chad interrupted, because he didn’t really want to think about kissing Ben. The guy hadn’t done it when he’d gone all beast mode, Chad really didn’t need it now. “But um… you need a condom.”

Ben blinked at him, then blinked down at his dick, as though a condom would somehow materialize if he just stared hard enough.

“Nightstand drawer,” Jay breathed, head thrown back while Mal bit angry marks into the curve of his neck. “T-There’s lube too.”

“Oh.” Ben scrambled to get out of the rest of his clothes. “Okay. I can- okay.”

“He’s usually much better than this,” Mal offered while she worked Jay over. “Well, maybe not _much_ better.”

“Mal,” Ben whined and that was- that was a naked king of Auradon fumbling with a condom wrapper, his hands shaking with anticipation and-

Chad found himself relieving the king of his burden before his panic could entirely take over. He knew better than most how much stronger Ben was than the average person. What could happen if he lost control. And granted, Chad hadn’t been molested by any Wishing Greens lately, but like fuck was he going to risk another pregnancy now that he’d just gotten his life together. He wasn’t.

He already had a kid. She was a great kid. He loved her to pieces.

He did not need another one.

“C-Chad,” Ben gasped when Chad worked the condom over his engorged cock, the length already dripping because apparently Ben got excited quite easily. “ _Chad_.”

“Ben,” Chad replied easily, making an effort to feel every part of the condom. To an outside view, it might look like a tease, but really, Chad was just checking the thing for holes. He was taking zero risks here. 

“ _Chad_.” Ben’s moans had grown more broken and drawn out when Chad was finally satisfied with the condom’s structural integrity. “Please-”

“Okay, Ben,” Chad said, pushing the king down onto his back. 

If they were doing this, they were doing it in a matter that wouldn’t send Chad back to their toxin-spurred tryst back in Neverland.

“Oh, fuck,” he heard Jay say, but Chad was ignoring him and Mal’s shenanigans because apparently Jay liked it rough but had never bothered to tell Chad that tidbit, but Chad guessed he’d never told the other man he didn’t want to have an open relationship, so maybe they had both fucked up here. 

Chad tried to push himself through the oddity of it, because as much as he’d imagined having sex with Jay, he’d never expected to have sex with Ben when he was coherent and had some kind of choice. But here he was, splayed out and willing, face flushed and chest heaving while Chad covered his dick in a fresh layer of lubricant while pretending everything was okay. 

“Chad,” Ben groaned while Chad took care of him in quick, efficient movements. “Do um- do you need me to stretch you?”

“You’re not that much bigger than Jay,” Chad said with a shrug. “And I’ve already had him twice.”

“ _Fuck_ ,” Ben and Mal seemed to say at the same time, Jay letting out a tiny chuckle to indicate he was pleased.

“Like damn rabbits, you are,” Mal hissed, and then Jay was making an inarticulate sound, accompanied by the tear of another condom wrapper. 

Okay then.

“G-Gotta make the most of it,” Jay hissed, whining while Mal likely worked a condom onto him. “Don’t always have a kid-free night-”

“Let’s not discuss my child right now,” Chad said when he moved to straddle Ben’s hips, taking a hold of the base of the king’s length so he could guide it into him and-

Oh. 

_Fuck_.

Okay, so he didn’t seem that much bigger than Jay, but there was um- definitely a stretch that may or may not have gone straight to Chad’s length.

“Fuck, fuck, _fuck_ , Ben,” Chad groaned, rocking himself experimentally. “Fucking shit, you feel-” _Bigger than last time_ , but Chad managed to clamp down on his lip viciously before he said as much, swallowing a ragged moan when Ben’s hands settled on his hips.

This was fine, Chad was in control. Chad was on top and he wasn’t boxed against the bed and he was the one taking his pleasure, not Ben.

Also, Ben would probably remember this tomorrow. Probably. He and Mal could be drunk, but Ben likely wouldn’t have been able to get this aroused if he was still feeling yesterday’s alcohol.

“ _Chad_ ,” Ben whined, rolling his hips pointedly. “You feel so good. So tight, you’re so-”

“Thanks, Ben,” Chad said, because he was literally incapable of not being awkward. “You um- also feel-”

“Sweet _evil_ ,” Mal hissed behind them, and Chad looked over his shoulder just in time to catch Mal sinking down on Jay’s length, one of his fiancé’s hands braced on her hip while the other settled on her breast-

Well, back to Ben. 

For lack of anything else to do, Chad started working himself up and down Ben’s shaft, squeezing and tensing around the king to make him come faster, to get this over with. Of course, that had the added effect of getting Chad worked up, to the point where he was so lost to it that he missed Ben’s hand moving until it settled between his legs with an enthusiastic pump.

“ _Fuck!_ ” Chad hissed, throbbing into _the king’s_ hand. “Don’t- if you do that, I’m not gonna-”

“Well, um- I’m not either,” Ben gasped, his flush tinging darker. “You’re so fucking _tight_.”

“D-Do what I can.” What even was this. They might as well be discussing council issues. This was so dumb. “Ben-”

“I want you to come all over me,” Ben said, making Chad flush down to his toes because what even _was this_. Did Ben do dirty talk? He should not do dirty talk; he was too spindly. “Come on, Chad, mark me-”

“N-Not until you-” Chad squeezed again, making both of them moan because Ben was so full and kept moving and Chad was so tight and Jay and Mal were having sex behind them. “Ben just- _come on-_ ”

“I am holding on by a hair-”

“Then cut the fucking hair, you schlub,” Chad hissed, grinding his hips down pointedly until he caught Ben’s gaze widen, his mouth fall open and tension grip his frame for half a second before Chad felt him fall completely apart inside the condom. 

It was enough to leave Chad sighing in satisfaction, like he’d finished a job well done. 

“Do you- do you like um- satisfying me?” Ben asked, seeming confused, but that made two of them so Chad guessed this was fair. “I didn’t- you haven’t-”

“It’s fine,” Chad said, waving him off. “I’m good with what I-”

Apparently, Ben was _not_ good, because then he was sitting up, jerking Chad’s length with conviction until he was blindsided by his release a few seconds later, Chad choking on his surprise while he spurted hot beads of slick all over Ben’s chest. 

“Ben, Ben, Ben,” Chad chanted until he trailed off in a low croon, the two royals slumped together while Ben toyed with his length. “I’m good, please-”

“So good,” Ben agreed, and then he was leaning in, tilting his head down to capture Chad’s lips in a kiss. 

It was soft, and totally a surprise. Chad heard himself release a shocked sound that Ben eagerly swallowed, the king seeming content to make out with Chad despite the fact that Chad was very much not his wife. And he continued not being his wife while Ben pushed Chad back down onto the bed until they were next to Jay and Mal, who seemed to have finished up their own tryst and were laying down, collapsed in a contented pile. 

“…aw man,” Jay mused, one arm wrapped around Mal’s waist while she splayed against his front. “Aw, _fuck_.”

“Y-Yep,” Ben breathed when he pulled away from Chad, breath catching when the blond pulled off his condom (mostly to check it), tying it off and chucking it in the nearby trashcan with an efficiency Ben apparently found quite sexy because he started kissing Chad all over again. 

This was- this was not how Chad had expected to spend the first day of his engagement at all.

“Hot damn,” Mal murmured when Ben finally seemed content, at least enough to leave Chad’s lips alone so he could start kissing his shoulder instead, the king wrapping himself around Chad like some kind of urchin. “We should do that more often too.”

“…yeah,” Ben said, almost dreamily. “We definitely should.”

Jay turned his head muzzily, seeming to look Ben and Mal over. “How long have you guys wanted to do that?”

“We tagged along on your date, stupid,” Mal huffed, rolling her eyes. “We were practically throwing ourselves at you all night.”

“You were?” Chad asked before he could help himself. He’d thought- that wasn’t friend stuff?

They’d been- both of them, the ruling king and queen of Auradon had been attempting to woo the prince of Sardinia and a professional Tourney player _into_ their bed. 

Mal made some kind of sound like Chad had just proved a point. “See?” she said, aiming the words at Ben. “I told you we had to spell it out. You’re fucking lucky they were having sex, or we would have been following them around like lost puppy dogs until Bella hit middle school.”

“I don’t understand,” Chad said, unable to hold his tongue anymore. “Is this- you just wanted to have sex with us?”

“ _No_ ,” Ben said, and then he was tilting their foreheads together, making Chad’s breath catch in its intensity. “No, we want far more than that.”

“But we’ll take the sex,” Mal mused. “If it’s on the table.”

“Oh, it’s _on_ the table,” Jay said, his lazy drawl tinged with victory. “Every table in every room, baby.”

“That is where we’ll have sex,” Mal giggled, and then the two of them spent a few seconds being immature lifelong friends who apparently wanted a long-term sex relationship. Or something.

“We want you,” Ben said, his gaze never wavering from Chad’s. “Both of you, if that’s okay.”

“That’s…” Surprising. Unlikely. Inaccurate. “…okay,” Chad settled on.

Ben stared at him for a hard moment, long and careful as though watching Chad’s soul for lies, before he eventually broke out into a smile. “Good,” he declared, and then he shifted forward to capture Chad’s lips again. “We’ll um- keep this to ourselves, for now-”

“Break it to the press nice and slow later,” Mal said. “Or never. Now move over, Benjamin,” she said, climbing over Jay. “It’s my turn to kiss those pretty lips.”

For a moment, Chad thought she was referring to, you know, her _husband_ – but then Mal was bodily shoving Ben out of the way so she could climb on top of Chad – very much naked and very much the only naked girl Chad had ever been close to – and then she was kissing him – her lips small but soft and _what was happening_.

“We’ve got dibs on the shower!” Mal declared when she pulled back, grabbing Chad’s wrist and urging him up out of bed. 

“You say that like there’s not a dozen bathrooms in this house,” Jay mused, but he was pulling a blushing Ben into his lap, so his argument was slightly distracted.

“Yes,” Mal hummed. “But we’ve got dibs on the big shower!”

If there were objections, Chad did not hear them. Instead he heard the sound of Mal’s laughter when she pulled him into the master bath, turning on the shower and occupying herself while the water got warm by biting up Chad’s shoulder.

“M-Mal,” Chad groaned, embarrassed and overwhelmed and _this was a lady_. “I don’t- I don’t think I can go again.”

“Don’t worry,” Mal hummed when she tugged him under the warm water, then took that same hand and guided it between her legs. “I can go enough for both of us.”

So.

That was Chad’s crash course introduction to pleasuring his first lady, who also happened to be the queen of Auradon.

Fun times.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“You seem dazed,” Jay mused over breakfast, Chad having been relegated to coffee and tea duty because the Agraben was determined to treat him. Which would have been a lot sweeter if he hadn’t had sex with the royal couple of Auradon roughly twenty minutes after he’d proposed to Chad. “You okay?”

“Just um- surprised,” Chad admitted, keeping his focus on the coffee maker. The coffee maker did not judge him, it had very straightforward expectations, clear instructions. Chad could not fail the coffee maker, but if he did, it would be easy to see where he’d gone awry. 

That wasn’t a luxury he had with Jay.

“Yeah,” Jay laughed, detouring from his efforts to stir pancake batter so he could wrap an arm around Chad’s waist, pressing a kiss against his shoulder. “Me too. I mean I’d hoped in like, in a distant way. I figured it was impossible, though. I already had you which is mind blowing in itself.”

“It is?” Chad asked, his heart fluttering lightly, the same way it always did when Jay was particularly doting.

“Oh yeah,” Jay hummed, kissing his way up Chad’s neck, doting under his jaw. “Somehow I got the super talented and passionate dad to like me, that’s pretty damn cool. And then-” He used a finger to turn Chad’s head so he could kiss him properly, gentle administrations that made Chad melt. “-of _course_ he won over my like, abandoned crushes.”

“A-um-bandoned?” Chad echoed when Jay turned him completely, pressed the prince’s back against the counter so he could shift them together.

“Pathetic teenage things,” Jay hummed, his hands curling around Chad’s hips. “Tried to bury them, mostly succeeded. Except apparently they wanted both of us, so-” He leaned down, started nipping at Chad’s shoulder again. “-guess that worked out.”

“Right,” Chad hummed, letting his fingers curl through Jay’s loose hair. He may as well. “So, um…” 

“Hey, are we doting on Chad?” Mal asked when she strolled into the room, grin spreading across her face. “That is a hobby I can get behind.”

“Damn right, it is,” Jay drawled, shifting so that he was behind Chad, the prince facing outwards towards Mal, who looked him over with a predatory giggle. 

She wasted no time pressing into Chad’s space, sucking on his lips while his hands hovered awkwardly beside her. She didn’t seem to mind though, at least that was Chad’s thought until she pulled away, eyes sparkling with mischief before she slunk down to her knees.

“M-Mal?” Chad stuttered as she started tugging his pajama pants down his legs. 

“I’m hungry, sweetheart,” she said, shooting him a wink. “And I think you’ve got just the thing to suit my appetite.”

“Fucking _shit_ , Mal,” Jay groaned, beginning to mouth at Chad’s neck again. “You can’t say stuff like that.”

“Pretty sure I can say whatever the fuck I want,” Mal hummed, nuzzling Chad’s groin before she started tugging his underwear down.

Chad felt himself tense. “You um- you don’t have to-” 

“Want to, baby boy,” Mal hummed, eyeing his length with an open expression of want. “Fucking shit, do I want to.”

“Is this our pre-breakfast snack?” Ben asked when he strolled into the room, taking the scene of his wife propositioning someone that was not him incredibly well. In fact, he took it so well that he fell to his knees next to Mal, happy to dote Chad’s sensitive flesh with wet kisses. “ _Outstanding_.”

“Well,” Mal giggled. “Our goal is to make him rise.”

“Like my personal porno,” Jay breathed, unintentionally triggering a swell of despair within Chad, not that he had time to focus on it, because the rulers of Auradon were working together to lavish his groin with eager mouths, and that was-

Well, that was a lot to process, so he tried to do that instead.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Good news!” Chad cheered when he carried Bella into the dining room that night like the sucker he was, his child babbling happily about the adventures she and Harmon had gotten up to during ‘ _the best sleepover ever_ ’. “Jay proposed to me!”

“Finally,” Chad’s father groaned, but he was smiling like a maniac, bouncing across the room so he could relieve Chad of his daughter with a delighted laugh. “Lord Consort Jadir of Sardinia, here we come!”

“What’s ‘proposed’ mean?” Bella asked, forever delighted by attention from her grandfather, though unable to hide her confusion.

“That means that Mr. Jay is going to join our family,” Chad’s father chirped. “He’ll be your new daddy.”

“He will?” Bella gasped, looking to Chad to confirm this was true. “ _Mine?_ That’s awesome! Dad.” She shifted her expression into one of utter determination. “I have to tell Harmon. _Please_ , can I call Harmon?”

“Dinner’s about to start, sweet pea,” Chad sighed.

“That’s okay!” Chad’s father cheered. “It can wait a few minutes while we spread _very important news_!” He spun Bella in an enthusiastic circle, the young princess giggling all the while. “I’ll supervise her – you bask in the glow. We’ll be right back!”

“ _Grandpa!_ ” Bella laughed before the two of them raced from the room, Captain Anozie rolling his eyes at their antics. 

“That is good news indeed,” Chad’s grandfather spoke up for the first time since Chad had arrived, setting the book he’d been reading aside to give Chad his full attention. “Formal announcements are in order, of course, but…” He narrowed his eyes, always one to read between the lines as a matter of habit. “You said this was good news. Is there bad news as well, Chadwick?”

Chad froze, because the new wefts of uncertainty in his life seemed to leave nothing but bad news, but that was a burden best carried by himself alone.

“No, grandpa,” Chad said, plastering on his best smile. “Everything’s fine.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

They developed a routine, Chad guessed. 

It wasn’t one he really liked, though he didn’t dislike it either. To be honest, he was wary of the development more than anything else, a deep-set fear that keyed into his anxiety too much for him to truly enjoy it. He wished there was some sort of definition to what they had, but in truth there was nothing. Without guidelines, Chad wavered, following in Jay’s wake and adopting a mask of confidence he hadn’t been forced to use since high school. 

It helped that he was busy just about always, between his duties and law school and Bella and the workshop, so he didn’t really have time to panic about Ben and Mal. He stuck to comforting patterns, texting with Jay constantly and sending the occasional message to the other two which they seemed to expect for whatever reason, but they were all busy, and Chad always had the excuse of a kid, so none of them seemed to mind that his communications were sporadic at best.

When they could fall together, it was always a whirlwind. His father insisting on taking Bella for the night out of the blue because Fairy Godmother had asked him, because Jane had asked her because Ben had asked _her_ , or sometimes Uma would invade his summer house with her kidlets and husbands in-tow and declare the villa their’s for the evening, and Gil would chase Bella and the kids down to the pool for some quality splash time.

It amazed Chad, who suddenly had an abundance of babysitters. Not that he’d been lacking in them before, exactly, he just rarely thought to ask them. But somehow when their schedules aligned Aunt Tilly would find her way into town, or Merlin would demand time with his munchkin, or Evie would have Bella over so she could play pirates with Squeaky and Squirmy, and it wasn’t exactly a bad thing, it just kept throwing Chad off balance. Ben and Mal – they were making an effort for him. An obvious effort, but was that so they could spend time with Jay, or was it genuine? And if it _was_ genuine, would it last? 

Chad didn’t know. There were too many unanswered questions. 

Most of the time they ended up at Auradon Castle. Ben would take them out to dinner or they’d have a picnic on the beach or stroll through an art gallery or museum or one notable time a dance club where Chad had felt terribly out of place but Jay had held him close, had watched him with a sultry look that made potential discovery by the paparazzi all worth it.

And then things would wind down, and Ben would invite them back to the castle for drinks or for a dessert recipe Mrs. Potts was trying out that was just fabulous, or because Mal wanted to see the newest Bella home videos up on the big flat screen tv and Chad was forever susceptible to anything that had to do with his child. And they’d drink or eat or watch and then somehow they’d always end up in the king’s suite, until Chad was splayed out on a bed that was obscenely large with Ben mouthing at his neck or Mal biting her way down his chest, with Jay running his hands all over Chad’s body like he was rediscovering him all over again, the Tourney Player often stopping to kiss Chad’s engagement ring like a form of silent validation. 

It was different. That was really all Chad could say for it.

It hurt less to watch Jay interact with the others, to see him eagerly pull Ben into deep kisses or for him to submit to Mal’s will, with each passing date. Jay always came back to Chad in the end, always seemed to be grateful for him, so Chad supposed he was the favorite (though the darker thoughts in his mind often wondered if he was the favorite of what was left now that Mal had married, now that it was done). 

It was something, a small thing to battle his restless uncertainty. It helped Chad weather the post-coital glow, when he’d sometimes get tucked against Ben’s side and his heart would be pounding in his throat, when he’d have to watch Mal press lazy kisses against Jay’s torso while Chad’s fiancé looked on with an expression of open fondness.

It wasn’t bad, he guessed.

It wasn’t exactly what he wanted either, because for all that they smiled at him, Chad knew they were really only there for Jay. They’d included Chad as an end to a means, and they treated him nicely enough, but he wasn’t the intended target at the end of the day.

He appreciated the effort they put forth for him, though. He felt like that counted for something. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

“So,” Uma said one day when they were pretending to do important work but really just watching their children throw mud at each other like the small hooligans they were. “You dating Ben and Mal, then?”

“Um.” No matter how much time had passed since their thing had started, Chad had never really gotten used to it, or even learned how to define it. “I guess.”

“You guess?” Uma echoed; one brow raised in interest. “‘Cuz Mal keeps talking to me about her ‘new boyfriends’, so she certainly thinks you’re dating.” Which meant Ben probably thought they were dating too. Did Jay think that? Were they dating a married couple? That seemed weird. “Unless you’re engaged.”

“Nope,” Chad said, uncaring how curt it may sound. “We are not engaged. I mean, I’m engaged to Jay-”

“Chill,” Uma said, waving him off with a lazy hand. She paused, considering him with narrowed eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Me?” Chad echoed, giving her the perfected version of his smile, the one he used at every press conference and high society get together. “I’m great.”

“Okay,” she said, glancing back over to their wild children. “You let me know if that changes.”

“Sure, Uma,” Chad said, easing the corners of his smile into the fond one he usually reserved for Bella. “I will.”

But he wouldn’t need to, because he was fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, got so close only to faceplant at the finish line. Ah, fun times. Fun times. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the feedback and support!! I can’t express how much both are greatly appreciated!! I hope you enjoyed the fluff as we transition into the more angst-laden section of the story, but on the bright side, there will be a lot of growth that will lead to a more fulfilling conclusion in the end :)
> 
> Story notes: 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – In the first scene, Chad and Jay shift to have a foursome with Ben and Mal, something Chad doesn’t particularly want to do but consents to because he wants to make Jay happy. He doesn’t discuss his reservations, and internally dwells on wanting to get it over with or trying not to think of what happened in Neverland a couple of times. If you would prefer to skip that, look for this line:
> 
> Chad supposed if he had a super attractive longtime friend, he’d probably be okay making out with them as well.   
> You can jump back in at:
> 
> “…aw man,” Jay mused, one arm wrapped around Mal’s waist while she splayed against his front. “Aw, fuck.” 
> 
> Until next time


	8. Going with the Flow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GENERAL WARNING – There’s a lot of Chad pushing himself through things he wouldn’t normally want to do in this chapter. It is definitely not a thing to be emulated in a real relationship – communication is superbly important – but this development with Mal and Ben is supposed to demonstrate that Chad’s lingering issues from his past weren’t as addressed as he’d thought. 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – In the second scene, there is some sex magic cast without permission, though it is applied with good intent. There is also a blatant lack of communication because Mal and Ben are too excited for their own good. See endnotes for more details. 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – In the third scene, there is more sex magic cast without permission, see endnotes for more details.

After talking to Uma, Chad realized that he needed a change in perspective. He was approaching this wrong, like it was something to dread. Really, he should be envisioning it as a bonus. Now he had ample excuses to spend time with Ben and get more legislature work done. Now he didn’t have to worry about potentially neglecting Jay because Ben and Mal were there to take care of him as well. And sure, sometimes that meant they cut into Chad’s personal time with Jay, but sacrifices needed to be made for the sake of one’s partner, right?

Right. Marriage was about compromise, not perfection. Things couldn’t be _perfect_ all the time, it would be unreasonable.

Chad had things pretty good. There was no reason to be a shit just because he was looking at the past through rose-tinted glasses. Of course it seemed better, it was behind them. 

He just needed to be positive, was all. The others seemed to be happy, why shouldn’t he be as well?

-:-:-:-:-:-

“This is awesome,” Mal groaned as she reclined back against her beach towel, the glow of the Sardinian sun hitting what few parts of her were not obscured by the flowy purple swimsuit wrap Evie had made for her. “We should play hooky more often.”

“We do play hooky often,” Ben said, grinning down at his wife with a level of adoration Chad had once found endearing. Now, though…

Well, it wasn’t worth thinking about, because this was a nice day and Chad deserved it. 

“I meant play hooky with important people, though,” Mal said, giving Ben a look over the top of her purple-tinted sunglasses. “ _Obviously_.”

“Obviously,” Ben chuckled, letting his gaze drift over to Chad, who was pretending to be completely engrossed in Jay’s attempts at surfing. So far it was not going well, but not for lack of trying.

“Dumb shit,” Mal said fondly, following Chad’s gaze. “He has no skill for this, but he’s not going to give up until manages to successfully catch one wave.”

“You love his determination though,” Ben mused, almost in a teasing sort of hum.

“Yeah, I guess I do,” Mal grumbled reluctantly, letting her head fall back with a sigh. “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to punish him, though.”

“What?” Chad asked distractedly, nudging his sunglasses up his nose to better obscure his eyes. “Punish who?”

“Jay.” Mal grinned, likely amused by Chad’s supposed Jay-enthrallment. “He has three very pretty people here who he could be doting on and instead he’s out there, failing at surfing.”

“Jay deserves to have his hobbies,” Chad said with a light shrug, not accusatory, more of a mild note.

Mal took this with a grin. “You’re so sweet,” she said, not mocking even though it felt that way. “Such sweetness deserves a reward.”

Chad felt himself blush. “I was just- I made a fair observation.”

“Very fair,” Mal agreed, sitting up so she could curl her fingers into the open collar of Chad’s button up beach shirt. She dragged him forward, just enough to take him off balance, before she claimed his lips in a kiss.

Just like every other time they did this, Chad felt uneasy, but he tried to hide that with a ploy of shyness, returning her attentions in bashful movements.

“Oh? Are we doing this?” Ben asked, and distantly Chad heard him roll to his feet and walk across the sand until he was settled down behind Chad, his hands falling on the prince’s waist. “Lovely.”

“Damn right, it is,” Mal gasped when she broke off the kiss, making an effort to nip just under Chad’s jaw. “You wanna get your hands on him?”

“Just about always,” Ben hummed in a low voice, one hand raising so it could slowly undo the buttons of Chad’s shirt, caressing the skin that was bared with long, teasing strokes. The other hand fell between Chad’s legs, cupping between them with a tentative squeeze.

Chad tried not to panic. This time, at least, wasn’t because they were touching him. Usually when they did this, Jay was near, and Jay could help get Chad worked up (which helped because Chad trusted him). And it wasn’t that Chad didn’t trust Mal and Ben, it was just- he didn’t have enough in him to completely surrender to their wills, which made it um- difficult to get aroused sometimes. When it was just them. 

So that was what made Chad _sort_ of maybe panic a little. 

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked, because he couldn’t be oblivious now – no, he had to save all of that for Chad’s engagement morning.

“S-Sorry,” Chad said when he felt both of them staring at him. “Sometimes I um- I have trouble…”

“Oh,” Mal blinked, then grinned, having exactly zero compunctions sliding a hand into the front of Chad’s swimsuit and fondling him directly. “I can help with that.”

For a second, Chad thought she meant the normal way, but then he remembered Mal was a sorceress just before he felt a pulse of warmth that left him incredibly aroused. 

He managed not to freak out because it was a pleasant sort of buzz rather than the relentless _shove_ that had been the Wishing Greens’ aphrodisiacs. So he was able to be mildly concerned with this until Ben and Mal pulled his swimsuit down his thighs, leaving them bundled just above his knees. 

Oh, okay. He hadn’t, he didn’t really want to be mostly naked outside and-

“ _Ah_ ,” Chad panted, his head falling back against Ben’s shoulder when beads of slick seemed to _gush_ out of him, dripping down his length. “M-Mal-”

“That’s what keeps you worked up,” Mal chirped, wrapping a hand around Chad’s slick member and giving it a slow pump. “No need to be embarrassed, this happens to Ben sometimes too. It’s why I invented the spell.”

“You wear it better, though,” Ben murmured, tone low and lust-filled as his hand joined Mal’s. “You’re so pretty, Chad.”

“Does that do something to you?” Mal asked with a raw grin, the question aimed at Ben. “You worked up knowing Chad’s wet for you?”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Ben growled, his lips brushing against Chad’s shoulder. He shifted forward, and Chad could feel the clothed bulge of his um- interest pressing against his butt. “I need-”

“Stretch first,” Mal ordered, passing over a bottle of lubricant before she went back to kissing Chad. “Fun times, later. Don’t let the beast take over.”

“ _Won’t_ ,” Ben promised, down to one-word answers, but he was careful when he slipped two lube-slicked fingers between Chad’s cheeks, nudging carefully at Chad’s entrance while Mal distracted him with her clever hands and ruthless mouth, leaving Chad panting and lost. 

“Mal, Mal, Mal, please,” Chad groaned, frustrated from her relentless teases that got him worked up but not enough to fall over the edge. “Please. _Please_ , Mal.”

“Almost there,” Mal promised, down to one hand as the other was firmly between her own legs, slipping beneath the confines of her suit so she could find her own pleasure. 

Ben was up to stretching Chad with two fingers, though the prince could barely process it through Mal’s attentions. 

“We don’t want you to hurt, baby,” Mal continued, kissing Chad’s neck. “I know you’re excited-”

“It’s so _wet_ ,” Chad whined, the mess having smeared across his pelvis, coating his inner thighs. “It k-keeps dripping-” And each pulse kept sending waves of pleasure through Chad’s body, intense, but not something he was adjusting to yet, so he just felt lost every time. 

“Yeah, it is,” Ben agreed with a rumble, the hand wrapped around Chad’s waist lowering so he could give Chad a firm _squeeze_ that left him _spurting_ messy beads of slick.

“ _Ben!”_ Chad thrashed back against the king. “Ben, please-”

“ _Careful_ ,” Mal snapped, deftly removing Ben’s hand. “What did I say about Chad?”

“H-Handle with care,” Ben managed, his wet hand curling around Chad’s hip. “S-Sorry.”

“Damn right, you are,” Mal huffed, and it was sort of touching that she cared about Chad’s wellbeing enough to talk to Ben about it. “Jay likes it rough; Chad is precious. And if you don’t figure that out quickly-”

“I-I’ll be good,” Ben promised, making Chad privy to a fundamental understanding of their relationship he was sure few had access to. The power dynamic, the reason _why_ they worked. “B-But maybe-”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mal huffed, reaching a hand behind Chad and deftly tucking it between his cheeks. “We can cheat here too.”

Another pulse of magic, and Chad wasn’t as magically loose as he’d been with the Greens, but it was certainly easier for Ben to urge a third and fourth finger in, until he was stretching Chad with carful ease.

“Thanks, Mal,” Ben breathed, sounding a little closer to himself. “Chad, may I um… have sex with you, please?”

“O-Of course, Ben,” Chad gasped, wondering why now, of all times, was when he decided to ask. “I um-”

“ _Slow_ ,” Mal urged, reclining down onto her back. Chad had a few seconds to wonder why before he found himself being pushed down after her, onto his hands and knees. “He’s gonna ease in, and then you’re going to take me, alright sweetheart?”

“Um- w-what?” Chad sputtered, still not getting it even as Mal smoothed a condom onto him. 

“He’s gonna ease in,” Mal repeated, giving Chad’s shoulder a light squeeze. “And then _we’re_ gonna have a good time.”

“I’m already having a good time,” Ben said, the sound of a condom being ripped open carrying from behind Chad. “But, you know-” he said as Chad craned to look over his shoulder, watching as the king eased a condom onto himself. “-we could always have an even better one.”

He used some of the slick on Chad’s thighs to lube himself up before pushing into the prince, and maybe Chad should be horrified by his moaned reaction, but in that moment he really couldn’t be.

And then Mal was wrapping her legs around his waist, pushing her swimsuit to the side so he could push inside of _her_ -

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Chad was chanting, lost and overwhelmed. The royal couple of Auardon was fucking him on his own beach. They wanted to- they instigated-

And maybe this was what he was good for to them – sex. Maybe they’d gotten him for Jay but saw opportunity in him due to his looks. There were a lot of fan blogs out there, and when Chad was younger, he’d um- read stuff. Stuff he probably shouldn’t have. 

There were a lot of people that had wanted to fuck the teenage prince of Sardinia, that commented on his looks, was his point.

Maybe Ben and Mal were like that. 

“Oh, _fuck_ , sweetheart,” Mal crooned, squeezing around his throbbing length. “You feel so good.”

“As good as Jay?” Ben asked, his mouth seemed to be buried in the curve of Chad’s neck.

“You’re all good, stupid,” Mal laughed. “He’s a little smaller-”

“S-Sorry,” Chad gasped, eyes squeezed shut in humiliation.

“Hey, no-” Mal chided, surging up to kiss him. “Motion of the ocean, not the size of the boat.”

“…what?” Chad was. So lost.

“You’re doing great,” Ben soothed, running a hand down Chad’s bare thigh. “Just thinking about you dripping wet inside her-”

Chad shuddered, reflexively squeezing around Ben who seemed to throb pointedly against all of Chad’s most vulnerable areas. 

“Ben, Ben, please-” Just get it over with. Just use Chad and _go_ , stop drawing it out with this weird kink stuff. 

“No,” Ben said, rutting harder inside Chad. “I know you’re shy, but I’m not gonna hold back from saying how much I admire you.”

“If you overwhelm him,” Mal interrupted with a low gasp. “I’ll break your damn nose, Benjamin.”

Ben’s only response was to whine, rocking forward against that collection of nerves that left Chad gushing. 

“Mal-” Chad tried to warn. “I’m gonna- I-”

“Don’t worry,” Mal said, her hands curled around his shoulders as though to brace herself. “I can feel it. You do what you need to do.”

“M-Mal!” Ben rutted, Chad gasped, and everything seemed to explode, every point of contact overwhelming and blissfully _good_. It seemed to destroy Chad, left him blinded with its intensity until he was finally coming down, ears ringing and eyes wide as he tried to process it all. 

By the time he came back to himself, they were all breathing heavily. Ben was easing Chad down onto his side so he was facing Mal, the king choosing to wrap himself around Chad’s back, one of his defaults for whatever reason. Chad suspected it was so that Mal could have clear cut time cuddling with Jay, speaking of which-

“You assholes,” an ocean-soaked Jay drawled when he stared down at them, the side of his mouth quirked up in a grin. “You couldn’t wait ten minutes?”

“I think you know we could not,” Mal offered between gasps, staring up at him with a look of delighted victory. “Hey, your fiancé just fucked me. And it was fucking good.”

“Of course it was,” Jay said easily, making Chad’s breaths come easier before he made a show of looking over Chad’s debauched form. “You guys really did a number on him, huh?”

“You can um- fuck me,” Chad said, turning just enough for Jay to see his stretched entrance, as embarrassed as that made him.

Jay’s smile shifted into something a bit softer. “I appreciate that,” he said, seeming to mean it. “But you look about spent.”

“You know what’s not spent?” Mal asked, sitting up with a grin. “Our hands. Get over here, big boy.”

“Oh, no,” Jay said, laughing. It was a feigned thing, his cheeks dusted in an embarrassed flush that spoke of his interest and combined inability to act on said interest. “I’m good. I’ll just-”

“ _Brave and bold, have no fear_ ,” Mal chanted with a smirk. “ _Make those swim trunks disappear_.”

“Mal!” Jay squawked when his dark swim trunks seemed to vanish into thin air. “You don’t have to-”

“Want to,” Mal and Ben said at the same time, sharing a smile before Mal deftly hooked her foot around Jay’s ankle and sent him toppling into their arms. 

“Okay,” Mal said as she pushed Jay into Ben’s lap. “Let’s fucking do this.”

She tugged Chad forward, motioning for him to get Jay’s lips and, well-

Maybe that time when Chad got worked up, it was natural, but that wasn’t the important part.

The important part was that Jay was loved. That Jay was taken down to a flushed, embarrassed mess with his legs spread wide and length throbbing hard against his stomach, Ben whispering filthy things in his ears while Mal toyed with his nipples and Chad eagerly exchanged deep kisses with him. 

Later, when he was stretched out on Mal’s beach towel – a lovely, naked vision – Mal would coax Ben and Chad into exchanging high fives.

“We are awesome,” she declared, sitting her purple sunglasses back on her nose.

“You are _monsters_ ,” Jay gasped, but he was smiling, his hair splayed around his head in a loose halo. “Any chance I can get my swimsuit back?”

Mal made a show of thinking about this. “Nope,” she decided. “But hey, I did back an extra pair, just in case.”

Jay laughed at her until he saw the tight speedo she held up for his attention.

“You’re the worst, Mal,” he groaned, dragging a hand across his face.

“If you want, you can use my panties instead,” Mal sang, and maybe that was worth it for the dark blush that seemed to bloom across Jay’s cheeks. 

So.

That was new information.

“Oh,” Mal cackled. “The wicked things I will do with you.”

“The _worst_ ,” Jay grumbled before shoving his way into the speedo.

It was a distracting afternoon. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

The problem with opening the door on sex magic (which only just barely managed not to set Chad off, but he spent a lot of time meditating and mentally preparing for it, so it wasn’t as bad as it could be) was that Mal liked to use it often. Or maybe not often, but at weird times that caught Chad off guard. Times when she wanted him or Ben or Jay to have a sort of treat when she couldn’t be there. 

It was one of these such instances that she caught Chad wrapping up some work in his private office back in Sardinia. She wasn’t even supposed to be in the country, but as one of Chad’s special people she’d been given a teleportation key, which was a privilege she and Ben liked to make use of often. They enjoyed spending family meals with Chad, Jay, and Bella, and sometimes even brought Ben’s parents and grandfather along so they could… all be together, Chad guessed.

They were hectic meals, but fun. They made it harder for Chad to hide his unease from his grandfather, though he managed somehow. 

That night, Jay was off at one of his rare night games. It was one Chad would record and watch with Bella later, when it was not safely past her bedtime. To distract from the injustice of not watching it live, Chad had dropped Bella off to have a sleepover with Fairy Godmother, who was teaching her the very introductory stages for being a witch. Chad had sort of gotten a crash course by fire, but Bella would have far more time to get prepared, to make her wand. Chad looked forward to seeing the pictures.

Mal was supposed to be with Jay, as Chad could not watch him without Bella (it was already a betrayal to wait, according to Chad’s almost six-year-old), which left Chad with Ben for the evening. Sort of. Ben would be coming late because of some meetings and then he and Chad would collapse in the same bed together and that would be their ‘bonding’ time or whatever. 

None of that had accounted for Mal, except then she was suddenly in Chad’s space, cackling madly. “Surprise boner!” was her chosen greeting, her hand rested pointedly against Chad’s crotch before she stirred it to life a familiar spell. 

“ _Mal_ ,” Chad groaned, losing hold of the documents he’d been sorting as he struggled to stay on his feet. “W-What-?”

“Hello,” Mal greeted, leaning forward to peck his cheek. “Sorry I can’t stay long, I have to get back to Auradon to make it to the game in time, but I thought since you and Benny were going to be hanging out tonight…”

“Mal,” Chad moaned, trying very hard not to fondle himself in front of _the queen_. “T-That’s not for another h-hour-”

“Exactly!” Mal chirped, herding Chad away from his desk and out of the room before he could really think about what was happening. “You’ll be so wet for him by the time he shows up. Besides-” She guided him into his bedroom, nudging him down on the bed. “-you work too hard. And we love that, _we do_ , but you need breaks, so-” She took one of his hands, cupped it between his legs. “Have a little fun. I altered it so you don’t have to worry about any um- premature performances at your own hand, if you know what I mean.” She grinned. “Of course, these bad boys-” She tugged at Chad’s pants. “-can only be taken off by someone else now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! Ben will take care of you when he gets here, but until then…”

“Mal,” Chad gasped when she began gliding away, a devious grin on her lips.

“No worrying,” Mal ordered, shooting a wink over her shoulder. “Just have fun. And don’t worry about waiting either. It should take Ben an hour at _most_ – Jane supposedly helped cut down his meetings so you two could have fun.”

“Mal,” Chad whined. “I don’t- I don’t know if I-”

“Sure, you can,” Mal chirped. “You deserve it, Chad. Just have fun!”

With that, she was gone, leaving Chad with a steadily leaking problem that throbbed against his clothes. He knew what she’d said, but he fumbled for the fly of his slacks anyway, a feeling of frustration growing in his chest when he realized she was right. He couldn’t get them off, so he was just getting wetter and wetter, which was probably the point of all this. It seemed to drive Ben a bit wild – well, both him and Jay, and while Chad was open to it from Jay, from Ben, he was understandably wary. 

And now he was totally stuck. He couldn’t work like this, and while he had at least a dozen magic users on-property at all times, he was far too embarrassed to reach out to any of them about such a sordid thing.

So he waited. That was what Mal wanted, after all, so he did that. After, of course, he stumbled to the bathroom and got a towel, draping it across his bed so he wouldn’t ruin the comforter. He was sure the servants were already getting ideas about what Chad was up to, but he didn’t like giving them ammunition for their gossip if he didn’t have to. 

He passed fifteen minutes trying to distract himself with meditation and calculations and then another fifteen staring at his phone, wondering where Ben was. Time seemed to drag slowly, but not so much that Chad was unaware of what was happening to himself. He’d already soaked through his underwear, the soft material clinging to him in a sodden mess, and now the slick was showing through Chad’s slacks, until there was a telling wet spot that grew where the head of his length strained against the material before resonating outwards, down his thighs, soaking through the rear of his pants. 

It was awful, but it felt so damn good.

After forty-five minutes, Chad had given into the temptation of fondling himself, though that didn’t seem to help either. If anything, it made things worse. After going so long without any kind of attention, he _gushed_ , sending rivulets of pleasure through his body while magic urged torrents of slickness from him, staining down his legs. 

“Please, please, please, please, please,” Chad was panting, frustrated tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. “Please, I need- _please_ -”

He almost missed the phone call when it came, the faint buzzing nothing compared to everything else, but somehow he caught it, scrambled for it with one hand and let out a sigh of relief when he saw Ben’s contact flash across the screen.

“Ben,” Chad gasped into the phone. “A-Are you okay?”

“ _I’m fine_ ,” Ben sighed, sounding entirely worn out. “ _I’m sorry I didn’t call you sooner. My meeting ran long, and it looks like I’m going to get pulled into another one_.”

“Is um- everything okay?” Chad asked, trying to sound more supportive and less like a desperate whore.

“ _It will be_ ,” Ben sighed again. “ _It’s just the intricacies of appeasing upper nobility. Things will be fine, but it looks like I won’t be able to make it tonight. I’m **so** sorry_.”

“Ben,” Chad gasped, pressing a sticky hand to his chest in an effort to calm his rising panic. “It’s okay. I totally understand.”

“ _I was looking forward to this_ ,” Ben promised. “ _I would much rather be there with you, I promise_.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Chad forced himself to laugh, even though he most certainly doubted it almost all the time. “It’s okay, Ben.”

“ _I’ll make it up to you_ ,” Ben swore, sounding determined. “ _I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you soon, okay?_ ”

“O-Okay,” Chad gasped. “Good luck.”

“ _Thanks,_ ” Ben laughed. “ _I’ll need it_.”

Yeah, Chad mused as the line cut out. So would he. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

The obvious solution would be to undo the enchantments himself, but with Chad so thoroughly off his game, distracted and shaky, and without a clue as to the fundamental components to Mal’s spell-building process, Chad had just as big a chance of making things exponentially worse as he had at improving them. 

Which left him with a problem, because Mal and Jay were at a Tourney game and Chad couldn’t even get his own pants off, and even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to find release on his own, so _something_ had to happen.

He decided a consultation was in order.

It was the only solution he had. 

Chad threw on a trench coat, hoped he didn’t look nearly as stupid as he felt, and teleported to the main teleportation marker behind the workshop. From there, he teleported to a familiar beachside retreat. 

He paused long enough to check if the kids were home (he should have called, but that was how out of it he felt) before confirming they were gone, that _someone_ was present, and that was enough to have Chad stumbling towards the door, knocking on it in a few frantic movements.

“ _What?!_ ” came the frustrated growl of one Harry Hook from inside. “ _Do ye know what fucking time it is, ye halfwit? I swear, if it’s you, Bertha_ -”

He threw the door open and froze, likely not expecting the flushed visage of one Chad James swaying on his doorstep. 

Chad swallowed a whine. “Is Uma here?”

Harry – who seemed to be trapped in a confused daze – shook his head, snapping back to the present with a scowl. “No, she’s at Evie’s. Kids are visiting the twins.”

“Right.” Chad shifted. Of course. That made sense. “Um… Gil?”

“Out visiting the crew,” Harry drawled, narrowing his eyes. “I was _supposed_ to have me-time tonight.”

“S-Sorry,” Chad murmured. “You can- you get back to that, I’ll just-” Panic a lot before eventually collapsing at Jane’s house because Chad wasn’t sure who else to turn to. 

“Hey.” A hand caught Chad’s wrist before he could make a full retreat, Harry’s grip relentless as he tugged Chad into the house. “Ye sick or something?”

“Something,” Chad swallowed, swaying on his feet. “I was um- hoping Uma could-”

“Don’t ye have a whole army of wizards or whatnot that can help ye?” Harry asked when he shut the door behind Chad. “Why didn’t ye ask for one of them? Is it embarrassing?”

“ _Um_.” Chad struggled to think of an answer before Harry dragged him over to the couch, shoving him down on it. “It’s um- yes, but…”

Harry froze. Stared. 

It was an intense thing, sharp and painfully blue. It looked nice, ringed in that familiar eyeshadow he’d worn for as long as Chad had known him. He was the only guy Chad knew who wore it, and it um- worked on him. 

Chad probably shouldn’t think about Harry’s looks since the guy mostly tolerated him at best, and also he was still _leaking_ , his thighs shifting wide on a reflexive instinct that would have made him blush were he not already so thoroughly humiliated.

“Is this some fucking _sex magic_?” Harry asked, his voice tinged with a slight hysteria. “Bertha was talking about that shit-”

“I can’t undo it,” Chad said, the words coming out in a rush. “They’re all busy and I _can’t_ -”

“Fucking _hell_ ,” Harry said, but then he was tugging Chad to his feet, dragging one of the prince’s arms around his neck so he could half-carry him up the stairs. “Don’t ye know better than to play with this stuff?”

“I didn’t _cast_ it,” Chad groaned, trying not to lean into Harry’s side, trying to ignore the shift of firm muscle beneath his comfy lounge clothes and sort of failing. “Mal wanted it to be a gift.”

“Some fucking gift,” Harry said, and then he was sitting down on the bed, pulling Chad into his lap. “Now,” he said, tugging the trench coat open. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

Chad whined when the coat fell open, breath catching in his throat when Harry’s hand settled deftly between his legs.

“Fucking _shit_ ,” the pirate breathed when he felt the soaking mess. “How long have ye been like this?”

“T-Too long,” Chad crooned. “P-Please, Harry, I can’t-”

“It’s okay,” Harry pressed, voice gruff and awkward, like he wasn’t used to comforting someone. “It’ll be alright, okay? I’m just gonna…”

He undid Chad’s pants, and the prince could have cried with happiness. He pulled Chad out of the wet confines of his clothes, and that should be terrifying – to have someone who wasn’t part of the weird sex thing Chad was doing now have a hand on him but Chad didn’t care because it felt so _good_. 

“Fucking hell, sweetheart,” Harry breathed, giving Chad’s length a tentative squeeze. “I’m just gonna-”

He pumped his hand once.

Chad lost it. 

It had likely been inevitable. He’d been suffering the effects of the spell for too long now, had been teased without release, had been suffering under constant urges of arousal that when he was finally given a prospect of relief, his body _took_ it. 

He came all over himself, ruining his shirt and catching just under his jaw while he crooned, writhing in Harry’s hold. The pirate continued to coax him through it, pumping and teasing Chad until he was a whining mess, until at last it stopped.

And then Chad started crying. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Harry breathed when the prince turned to bury his face in the pirate’s chest, needing to hide away from the world. “Hey, it’s alright-”

Chad’s articulate response was to sob, because that was the most appropriate thing to do with someone who didn’t like you. Obviously. 

“Fucking _fuck_ ,” Harry breathed again. “Just- do what ye need to do, okay?” he said, running a hand down Chad’s back while the prince shuddered and gasped against him.

Eventually, the waterworks came to an end, leaving Chad a horribly embarrassed mess, wishing that the floor would swallow him whole.

The only bright side in all this was that Harry seemed to feel that way too.

“Alright,” Harry said, clearing his throat when they’d been quiet for a good ten minutes. “Let’s get ye cleaned up.”

Chad swallowed. “You… you don’t have to-”

“ _Shut it_ ,” Harry snapped, and then he was dragging Chad into the master bathroom, herding him into the shower. 

He nudged the prince down onto a stone bench that seemed to be built into the wall and started pulling Chad’s shoes off one at a time, tossing them out of the shower and following up with the socks. He probably thought Chad was too incompetent to manage cleaning up on his own, since he couldn’t even save himself from a spell. It was a bitter thought, but at least Harry cared enough to help Chad – though that was likely with the threat of Uma lingering over Harry. Uma, who seemed to like Chad for whatever reason. 

“This wasn’t your fucking fault,” Harry continued with a growl, as though sensing Chad’s thoughts. He made quick work of getting the blond out of the rest of his clothes, even his pants and underwear, which clung relentlessly to Chad’s body. “Out of all of those schmucks, you’ve got a level head on your shoulders,” he said while starting up the water, switching it to a handheld nozzle. “We all fucking know ye wouldn’t do this to yourself.”

That was easily the nicest thing Harry had ever said to Chad. The blond was honestly touched, though he wasn’t sure how much of it was offered out of pity, since Chad was in such a miserable state. 

“So just- don’t hold it against yourself,” Harry continued, checking the water’s temperature before he turned it on Chad. “‘Cuz ye don’t deserve it, and that’s coming from me.”

Chad supposed he had a point.

It should probably be weird to be cleaned by Harry. Partially because the guy didn’t like him that much and partially because Chad wasn’t dating him, but for whatever reason, Chad trusted the pirate. It was probably because he also had kids, could keep his movements quick and methodical, never lingering on certain areas. Chad whimpered when Harry got to his groin, getting an apologetic look from Harry when he patiently cleaned off the dried flakes of slick that clung to Chad’s member. 

In true parent-fashion, Harry finished by washing Chad’s hair, which was actually a relaxing thing, having those rough fingers massage against his scalp.

By the time they were done, Chad felt substantially better, his breath coming easier, his face less flushed.

“Here,” Harry said, shoving him a bundle of Gil’s clean clothes. “Ye want me to burn your old things?”

“Not the shoes,” Chad said as he stepped into Gil’s large pajama pants. “Or the trench coat. But um… the rest of it-”

“Yeah.” Harry made a face. “It goes.”

Chad thought that would be it, but then he found himself herded into Harry’s bed, the pirate refusing to take no for an answer.

“The adrenaline’s about to wear-off,” Harry said. “Best get into bed before then. I’ll get ye some water to rehydrate, just- _stay there_.”

“Okay,” Chad said, nuzzling deeper into the soft and homey blankets.

Now that the ordeal was over, he could feel the urges of exhaustion beginning to creep up on him, sliding its claws under his skin. He checked his phone, had the forethought to text his dad and assistants to let them know he’d be out of the castle until tomorrow, then surrendered to sleep, burrowing into the covers. 

“Hey now,” Harry tutted sometime later, his clothes smelling of smoke and sea breeze. “Up ye go.”

Chad grumbled while the pirate urged him up against his side, the lip of a cup pressed to his mouth. Chad drank without opening his eyes, feeling entirely too tired to do anything but accept the cool water. 

“It’s okay,” Harry repeated when he settled the prince back down into the blankets. “It’s okay, you’re okay.” A hand combed through Chad’s curls, though he could have very well imagined it. 

The bed shifted behind him, and he registered Harry getting situated next to him which- of course, it was his bed. The lights dimmed and Chad settled, because even though this should be unquestionably weird, it wasn’t.

Just when he was about to nod off to sleep, he felt that maybe-hand in his hair again.

“They should take better care of you,” Harry whispered – perhaps, because a second later everything faded into the true darkness of sleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“ _Was it fun?_ ” Mal asked when she called the next day, Jay safely off on his next leg of team travel and the queen back in her castle. “ _Did you guys have a good time?_ ”

“Ben had to cancel,” Chad said, adjusting the collar of the button up shirt Harry had let him borrow, the pirate insisting he’d been trying to rid himself of ‘such formalwear’ for a long time. Chad made a note to send him an entirely new suit in thanks for his help, though he doubted the first mate would accept it. Uma might, though. “It’s okay, though. I figured out how to undo the spell and hung out with Harry.”

“ _Harry?_ ” Mal echoed, choosing to focus on the last part. “ _Like, Harry Hook?_ ”

“That’s the one,” Chad said. “Our kids are friends, which means we’re friends. Such is the bond of parents.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Mal laughed, a weird edge to her tone. “ _Yeah, I get ya. I’m sorry about Ben, though. I had no idea_.”

“I know,” Chad lied. “It’s okay, Mal. It was a nice thought.”

“ _I’ll make it up to you_ ,” Mal promised.

“Looking forward to it,” Chad lied again, when he really wanted to say ‘ _that’s what I was afraid of_ ’.

But he was a coward, so he didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t worry, I’m not going to drag out this total lack of communication for much longer. Things will come to a head next chapter, and then – well, you’ll see.
> 
> As always, thanks to everyone for the feedback! Last chapter marked the beginning of Chad’s fracture, or mostly, the revelation that the issues he thought he’d addressed in the Outerlands really hadn’t been as taken care of as he’d thought. The next chunk of the story has him healing/growing through it, but it will be a bit of a rough ride.
> 
> Story notes: 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – Scene 2 – in the second scene, Ben, Chad, and Mal have sexy times on the beach. It’s not that Chad’s averse to the idea of having sex with them, he just doesn’t understand why they want to yet, so it makes it difficult for him to get things going. Mal helps him with sex magic without asking, and though he never says no or turns them down, admittedly, he is still uneasy. If you would like to skip that, please look for this line: 
> 
> “Damn right, it is,” Mal gasped when she broke off the kiss, making an effort to nip just under Chad’s jaw. “You wanna get your hands on him?”
> 
> You can jump back in at:
> 
> “You assholes,” an ocean-soaked Jay drawled as he stared down at them, the side of his mouth quirked up in a grin. “You couldn’t wait ten minutes?” 
> 
> WARNING – Dubious Consent – Scene 3 – Mal casts a spell on him without his permission to make him aroused, with the intent for it to be a treat for both himself and Ben, who was to show up later. She leaves before they really talk about it, and it becomes a bit of a predicament for the rest of the chapter. If you want to skip the worst of it, look for the paragraph that starts with:
> 
> Mal was supposed to be with Jay…
> 
> Then skip the rest of scene 3. You’ll miss Ben canceling on him for the night, and then Chad needs to determine a solution to take care of the spell. The spell affects him for a lot of the next scene as well, so if you want to skip that entirely, jump down to this line in scene 4:
> 
> ‘The only bright side in all this was that Harry seemed to feel that way too.’
> 
> Chad goes to the pirates’ house to see if Uma can help break the spell, and Harry’s the only one there. The beginning of the scene is him helping Chad out. 
> 
> Until next time


	9. The Breaking Point

The world managed to change on a Friday afternoon of no particular note, when council sessions had closed early for the weekend and Ben had insisted on hosting them in an extended sleepover. Chad couldn’t object because Fairy Godmother had volunteered earlier that day to take over his duties at the workshop and his father had assured him Sardinia would be fine without his presence and he and Captain Anozie wanted granddaughter time anyway, so Bella would be safe with them. 

Sometimes, Chad wished his friends and family would be a little less accommodating, but he supposed everyone got excited by the prospect of love. 

So it was Friday afternoon, and Jay and Ben were flirt/bickering over whether to have lunch in front of the television and watch a movie (which none of them ever had time to do) or if it would be better to have it in the garden or down on the beach when Mal stormed into the room, her lips pulled wide in a brilliant smile, her entire disposition radiating joy. 

“I’m pregnant!” she cheered before any of them could ask, holding up a pregnancy test that supported this fact. “I took three separate tests and they all say I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant! _Me_ – I am _pregnant_!”

For a moment, Ben was frozen with shock, and then he was picking up his petite wife, spinning her in a circle before setting her down with the utmost care. He fell to his knees, nuzzling her stomach as though he could already sense the child therein, and looked up at Mal with an expression of such open happiness it made Chad shake. 

“It’s happening,” he whispered, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I can’t- I’m so happy. I’m so proud of you. Thank you.”

“Thank _you_ ,” Mal giggled, running a hand through Ben’s hair. “This is your doing, slick. Oh, I gotta call Evie! And Carlos!”

“Go do that,” Chad advised, falling into his _professional royal diplomatic_ disposition, the same he used any other time he was panicking. “We’ll ring Mrs. Potts for some sparkling cider.”

“That’s right!” Mal cheered as she started to storm out of the room. “No more alcohol for me, because _I’m pregnant!_ ”

“Wow,” Ben said as he watched the door swing shut behind her, a dopey look of adoration clear on his features. “I’ve got to tell my parents.”

“One second,” Chad said, his heart pounding in his chest. He turned to face Jay, whose smile tensed when he registered the serious look on Chad’s face. “Jay, did you ever have unprotected sex with Mal?”

Jay’s entire body froze, completely consumed with a sudden concern, his eyes narrowed in thought before an obvious comprehension settled over him. Chad knew damn well that Jay had sex with Ben and Mal when he wasn’t around. He’d encouraged Chad to do the same, but the prince always had the excuse of being busy. He didn’t seek them out the way Jay did, but he knew it happened. Knew he couldn’t always be around to watch.

“The last time,” he said, ducking his head reluctantly. “I- I didn’t have one and Mal said- she’d been struggling to get pregnant-”

“What?” Ben tensed, because apparently Mal had never felt inclined to inform him of that tidbit. “She was? She never told me.”

“Apparently she’d been trying since I got back from my quest,” Chad said, his tone carefully neutral. “When we were nineteen.”

That was four years ago – four years of attempted conceptions, and Mal had only made some headway when she switched partners.

Ben wavered under the weight of this information until he finally collapsed back onto his couch, his eyes wide, overwhelmed. “The problem was with me, then,” he said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.

Jay made a strangled sound. “We don’t know if they’re _mine_.”

“It’s just a possibility,” Chad said, keeping his voice gentle. “But it seems like a strong one.”

“I don’t understand,” Ben said, shaking his head, and Chad wanted to snarl that this was what he got for fucking around with other people. Chad was greedy, but he wasn’t _that_ greedy. “I should- because of the remnants of the curse, I should be able to create _one_ child. That’s what my dad told me – one last punishment to go along with his cure, to guarantee that our line would stay noble and kind. I should be able to impregnate one person, but with Mal…” He shook his head, features tinged with despair. “Maybe we need a surrogate. Maybe our blood just doesn’t mix. Maybe Fairy Godmother-”

“Breathe, Ben,” Chad forced himself to say, panic building in his throat. “ _Breathe_. We don’t know if they’re Jay’s, yet.”

“They are, though,” Ben cried, bending over to bury his face in his hands. “I know it. I didn’t want to know it, but I know it. My father said- when mom got pregnant, he knew before she even told him. I didn’t, though. I had no idea.”

“Ben-” Jay’s expression was terrible, wrecked and full of pain. “You’re different people. Spells dilute-”

“Not this one,” Ben groaned, thoroughly miserable. “I can’t- I couldn’t get my wife pregnant.” His body shook with a guttural sound, and Chad realized he was crying. “I- I don’t know _why_.”

“It’s okay, Ben,” Jay soothed, sending Chad beseeching looks. “It’s going to be okay.”

It wasn’t. It couldn’t be, and that wasn’t anyone’s fault. Not really. It was just an accumulation of very specific happenstances lining up at _just_ the right moment seven years ago, but that wasn’t anything Chad could talk about. 

“I…” Chad began, feeling lost and terrified. “I’m going to speak to Fairy Godmother.”

“Chad,” Jay said, and it didn’t take much to realize that the Tourney Player thought that was the wrong response, but Chad had nothing else for him.

“She won’t tell anyone,” Chad said. “Just- take care of him. I’ll have Evie waylay Mal. It’ll be okay.”

It wouldn’t be, Chad thought when he exited the suite, sending a furious string of texts to Evie and Jane and then, after a moment’s consideration, Uma as well. Mal needed to be distracted. She needed- _they_ needed to go back in time. But they couldn’t. 

They had to deal with what they had. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Fairy Godmother took one look at Chad and motioned for the assistant principal to take her spot overseeing the afternoon’s Swords and Shields match. She wasted no time bustling him into her private cottage, offering him a mug of her special herbal tea that couldn’t save Chad this time, not like it did before. There was no comfort in it, because there was no comfort in anything. Or it seemed that way.

“I learned something,” Chad said, his voice shaky, rough.

He told her what Ben said about his family’s curse, about how he could only impregnate one person. It was why he was an only child. Why he had no siblings. 

Through it all, Fairy Godmother listened with rapt attention, her expression shifting from concerned to one of open sorrow. 

“Oh, _Kit_ ,” she said, laying a comforting hand on his shoulder, seeming at just as big a loss as he was.

“I can’t… I can’t tell him.” It wasn’t an option, to dwell on that. It was a wonder Chad could have sex with Ben at all nowadays, after _that_. 

Fairy Godmother let out a low hum, but didn’t disagree. “Perhaps… if we tell him he was the other part of the Celestial Blessing, we could explain his difficulties through that. Perhaps the magic knew.”

“He’ll be mad,” Chad said, feeling hollow. He thought back to that day when they were children, when Chad’s arm had been broken through no real fault of anyone, and felt himself begin to shake. “That I didn’t tell him.”

“You didn’t have a reason to before,” Fairy Godmother said, her tone gentle. “You were right to be concerned, back then. King Adam would have motioned for Bella to be turned over to Central Auradon, would have stated that their bloodline took first priority, especially with Benjamin being unable to conceive again.”

“I don’t-” Chad swallowed. Shook some more. “I don’t want to think about all the ways they could have taken my child.”

“Okay,” Fairy Godmother agreed, apologetic. “Well, it doesn’t matter anymore. Since you and Benjamin are together now, you can easily tell him the news, and this-”

“No.” Chad hadn’t realized he’d said it until Fairy Godmother gave him a concerned look, and Chad realized how hollow he sounded. “No,” he tried again, a bit firmer.

“…no?” Fairy Godmother echoed, struggling to understand. “But you love him.”

Chad loosed a strangled sound not unlike Bella’s small growls, felt tears begin to build behind his eyes as he struggled to breathe. He was panicking. He was shaking apart.

“I don’t-” He said, feeling close to the end of this rope. “I don’t think I love anyone.”

“Don’t say that, dearie,” Fairy Godmother soothed. “You love Bella. You love your father and Captain Anozie-”

“You know what I _meant_ ,” Chad hissed, squeezing his eyes shut. “I thought- I thought I loved Jay, but I don’t trust him. I can’t- I haven’t been able to tell him everything, because I don’t want him to know, I don’t want anyone to _know_.”

“What happened to you was very traumatic,” Fairy Godmother reminded him in that patient voice of hers. “When and who you reveal it to is entirely your own business.”

“But he was my fiancé,” Chad groaned, tears leaking from the corners of his eyes. 

It was then that he realized that he’d used the past-tense. That he’d given up on Jay, that-

The moment Mal had gotten pregnant, it was over. Because Jay loved Mal and Ben, and Chad could barely manage to love Jay. 

His body shook, tense with pain as he attempted to swallow down sobs. 

“I was gonna marry him,” Chad croaked, falling into Fairy Godmother’s side willingly when she pulled him closer. “I was gonna marry him and he’d never know. We’d go our entire lives and I’d never tell him what happened out there- that I’m not a hero. That I didn’t do anything special. I just have dumb whore blood-”

“Chadwick James,” Fairy Godmother tutted, her voice stern. “There is not one whorish thing about you. Your blood has been _blessed_ , and I’m sorry that your first run-in with that blessing was in an entirely catastrophic way, but that doesn’t make you _dirty_.”

“It feels like it,” Chad sniffed, wishing he could function just enough to make things better. “I’ve been fooling myself.”

“You haven’t,” Fairy Godmother assured him. “You haven’t, and it’s going to be okay.”

He let her continue to offer him comforts he didn’t believe, because at least one of them should feel useful right now. He thought that over while he continued to cry, knowing he needed to purge the poison that was his sorrow out of his system before he could pretend to be functional.

Later, he would need to face the world head on.

For now, there were tears, and that was okay.

-:-:-:-:-:-

“Could we…” Chad asked later, when he had washed his face and downed another two cups of tea so he could feel closer to human. “Do you think we could make them a baby? Using their DNA? Like how you made Jane?”

“That’s different, sweetheart,” Fairy Godmother informed him with an apologetic look. “I’m a full-blooded fairy. I’m allowed to create one descendant to further my line, but with humans…” She sighed. “It’s an entire field that hasn’t been truly looked into. We have potions to help with fertility and maintaining a pregnancy, but no magics for how to entirely create a new human.”

“And Mal’s only half-Fae,” Chad deduced quietly. “So she wouldn’t have the same capabilities, and even if she did, her child wouldn’t have any of Ben’s traits.”

“Unfortunately,” Fairy Godmother said. “Are you going to tell them about Bella?”

“No.” The answer hadn’t changed, though he could see how Fairy Godmother had hoped it would. “I can’t. I _can’t_. They’ll take her-”

“Chad-”

“They don’t really love me!” Chad burst, because that was the heart of the issue. “And I don’t love them. I can’t- I can’t keep doing this. I don’t know why I let it get this far, but I _can’t_.”

“If you don’t,” Fairy Godmother began, appropriately solemn. “The Florian line will have no heir.”

For a long moment, Chad didn’t say anything, reviewing his options.

“When she’s eighteen,” Chad decided. “I’ll announce it when she’s eighteen.” When she had legally reached adulthood. “I’ll… I’ll marry and provide another heir for Sardinia, and both kingdoms will be cared for.”

“You’d leave them fretting for twelve years?” Fairy Godmother asked, her voice carefully neutral.

“A prophecy,” Chad declared, struck by another source of inspiration. “We’ll- someone will ‘see’ another prophecy. Their line will be taken care of. No fear.”

“Chad…” she began, not a chastisement, more like a declaration of sorrow. Pity.

“He can’t have my child,” Chad said. “And I don’t- I can’t love Jay enough. I can’t love any of them enough to share her.”

He was too greedy. Too selfish and vain.

Maybe he hadn’t changed since high school at all. Maybe it was all a big joke. 

“ _Chad_.”

“I have to,” Chad pressed, wishing she would understand. “I have to take the sure thing, and the only certainty I have is Bella.”

“That ring on your hand might beg to differ,” Fairy Godmother noted, her expression sad.

“Yeah,” Chad said, staring down at his fingers, at the pretty band Jay had begged Fairy Godmother and Merlin to help him with. “That’s what I thought too.”

And then Jay had turned to Mal with eager, open arms and Chad couldn’t even blame him. He couldn’t blame Jay for having a big heart. He couldn’t blame Mal and Ben for loving the Tourney Player, because he was so easy to love. Chad couldn’t blame them for stealing anything, because Chad had never made an effort to claim Jay, not in the way it counted. 

In nine months, Mal would be having Jay’s baby. In nine months, that baby would need a family to love and treasure and protect it. 

And Chad loved Jay, he truly did.

But he didn’t love him _enough_. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

By the time Chad returned to Auradon Castle, Mal must have realized the truth about her baby’s father because her smile was less bright, the queen keeping a firm arm around Ben’s shoulders while the king attempted to assure her that he was very happy, and of course he would love this child because it was still theirs, and he wasn’t really disappointed and a whole slew of other good guy things. Chad only paid half an ear to it, to be honest, more focused on setting down his tray of tea and cookies, Mrs. Potts sending up a plate of Ben’s favorites with that weird sixth-grandma sense she had, knowing that Ben needed it.

All three of them looked relieved when Chad entered, Ben managing a watery smile and Jay’s shoulders slumping and Chad wished- he really did, that he could offer more of a reprieve. 

He busied himself preparing them tea, pouring out cups with extra honey and cream for added comfort, and they all bestowed upon him a level of gratitude he truly did not deserve in response. 

“What did Fairy Godmother say?” Mal asked, looking oh so hopeful.

Chad sighed. “We can’t create an heir with magic.”

Ben shuddered, but didn’t seem to fall apart, so he’d been likely expecting this response to begin with. “I just- I don’t understand,” he repeated. “I should be able to do it at least once.”

“Maybe you already have,” Mal said, her tone perfectly detached, and then her gaze slid over to Chad, fixed him in place with a relentless intensity. “Chad,” she began, the room so silent you could hear a pin drop. “Who is Bella’s other parent?”

Ben perked up, looking hopeful, but that had nothing on Jay, who broke out in a brilliant smile of triumph. 

“That’s it!” the Agraben cheered, bouncing to his feet with a grin. “That has to be it! I mean, her eyes! And she does this growly thing-”

“Chad,” Mal interrupted, her focus never leaving Chad’s face. “Who is it?”

Chad didn’t say anything for a moment, couldn’t, because they were never supposed to find out. He felt his shoulders begin to tremble and made an effort to hold himself still, to breathe, because he couldn’t break down right now.

“It’s a secret,” he offered, lips feeling numb.

“It’s Ben,” Mal declared with a snarl, rising to her feet with an angry flash of her teeth. “You know that but you didn’t say it earlier. _Why?_ Your own partner is sobbing-”

“He’s not-” Chad interrupted, words thick in his throat. “You’re not-”

“Chad?” Jay said, his expression finally shifting into something like concern. “What’s wrong?”

The words burst out of Chad in a graceless deluge, months of resentment and bitter anger and other personal failings dripping in his tone.

“You can’t have her!” he snapped, backing away from the three of them. “You _can’t_. She’s my daughter, I raised her-”

“So what?” Mal growled, pushing herself into the open area of the lounge so she could stare Chad down. “Because she was your blessing, you don’t feel like sharing her? She’s Ben’s kid too! He would have helped-”

“No, he wouldn’t have!” The words seemed to be ripped from Chad, pulled deep from the ugly recesses of his heart before they were blaring in the air. “They would have taken her in a second, because I’m Chad _dipshit_ Charming and he’s Ben, the ruler of all kingdoms! Do you think- do you honestly think they would have let me within a foot of Bella? They would have-” Fresh tears seemed determined to pour down his cheeks, and it was stupid, because he had already cried so much that day and yet of course he found more tears. Maybe that was a gift of his _blessed blood_ too. “They would have said, ‘ _Hey, thanks for the kid. Thanks for contributing to the good of Auradon_ ’ before patting me on my head and sending me on my way so don’t act like I had some kind of choice in this, because I didn’t.”

He felt alone, _was_ alone, had always been that way, adrift and floundering in the middle of that room, the other three staring at him like the ugly little monster he was. 

“She’s my kid,” Chad pressed, subconsciously wrapping an arm around his stomach. “I have- had, so little family. I had _nothing_ , and you had parents that love you and Mal and friends and every kingdom in Auradon. You didn’t get my kid too. I didn’t…” Chad gasped, pressing a hand to his mouth. “I- I didn’t know you could o-only have one, Ben. I _didn’t know_.” 

They stared at him, shocked into silence, but it was Jay that moved first, Jay that approached with raised hands, like he was talking down a wounded animal. “Chad…” he said, his voice so very gentle. “You’re not- you’re not a dipshit, Chad.”

“Oh, _grow up_ , Jay,” Chad sniffed, scrubbing angrily at his cheeks. “I am the biggest dipshit there is, and you don’t know it because I’ve been too afraid to tell you because I- I wanted you to keep liking me.”

“That’s not-” Mal began, cutting herself of with a frustrated huff. “You aren’t a dipshit.”

“And I’d never let them do that to you, Chad,” and that was Ben – perfect Ben – who had finally regained his bearings. “You would have been involved in her life- _will_ be involved in her life-”

“You don’t control everything, Ben,” Chad sniffed. “They would have kept me on supervised visits and only let my family see her every other Saturday-”

“Fuck what _could_ have happened,” Mal snapped. “It’s done. It’s over. Aren’t you always talking about that? How we should leave the past behind us? Well, that past is behind us, so let’s just...” She made a rapid motion with her hand. “Let’s circle back around to the part where you don’t want to share Bella now. I mean- Ben’s your partner, for evil’s sake! How could you be so greedy?”

“Easily,” Chad snapped, needing them to see who he was. _What_ he was. He’d never been noble or heroic or charming. That wasn’t him. This was him. And they didn’t love him. “Bella’s mine-”

“Well,” Mal hissed. “She’s Ben’s too. And if you think you’re gonna block us out of her life-”

“Mal,” Ben said, his face pinched. “I think we all need to take a step back and calm down.”

“ _No!_ ” Mal growled, her eyes glowing a furious shade of green. “I can’t- I can’t believe that someone I’d love – someone I thought so highly of – would do this. I can’t-”

“There’s a reason, Mal,” Ben soothed, apologetic gaze darting between his wife and Chad. “We just need to hear what it is, and we can’t do that-”

“Why?” Mal snapped, turning the full weight of her rage on Chad. “What excuse could you possibly have?”

“Because I’m _poison!_ ” Chad snarled, feeling the entire brunt of her displeasure, his own helplessness, his pain entirely in that moment. “Because I’m vile and mean and-” He fumbled for his ring, jerking it off in clumsy movements. “And I’ll r-ruin you, but not- not her. She’s the _one_ good thing. She brought- she brought us back, b-brought us together.”

She gave Chad a family and a will to fight and be brave and be strong and try better and if she was gone, because she’d _be gone_ , he wouldn’t have anything left in him anymore. All that terror from being sixteen and pregnant and scared and horrified – all of _that_ would have been for nothing. 

“Y-You don’t get that too,” Chad gasped, chucking his ring in Jay’s direction. “You can’t have everything, Ben. You have to leave some for the rest of us.”

“Chad,” Jay cut in, his eyes wide with panic. “You’re not- you’re none of those things. Please just- calm down, okay? We don’t have to do this; you don’t have to _leave_.”

“Of course I do,” Chad said, feeling entirely defeated. “Because if I don’t, you will.”

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad returned to Sardinia in a haze, feeling detached from his body, like he was watching it go about its business from the outside. He’d teleported to the summer home blindly and used the established teleportation runes there to return back to the workshop. He paused just long enough to block Jay, Mal, and Ben’s access before he stumbled towards the castle, a hollow husk of a human. 

He couldn’t go to Bella, not like this, so he detoured towards the workshop’s library, burying himself in research. Fairy Godmother was stronger than him, was older and wiser, but Chad was a fresh pair of eyes. Maybe he could find something she’d missed. Maybe they just needed a new field of magic that hadn’t been invented yet. 

No one interrupted his efforts, but Honey Lemon must have ratted him out because his father appeared a few hours later, when the dark of night had safely claimed the land and Bella was tucked into bed. 

“Kit…” He lingered in the doorway, looking over Chad’s rumpled appearance with obvious concern. “Sweetheart, what happened?”

“I-” Chad swallowed, pulling his gaze from chicken scratch notes that leaned more towards indecipherable than brilliant. “It’s um- over.”

The king paused, confusion filtering away into a careful inspection that eventually had his gaze landing on the empty ring finger Chad hated so much. “He ended it?”

“I did,” Chad said, because as awful as he was, he wasn’t going to lie to make things easier. It wouldn’t be fair to Jay. “I couldn’t- I couldn’t do it anymore.”

“Kit.” The information seemed to give his father the confidence to push into the room, to wrap an arm around Chad’s shoulders while the prince struggled to hold himself together. “You seemed so happy with him.”

“I was,” Chad said, his voice strangled, his throat thick with emotion. “I thought I was, but he wanted more, and I couldn’t- I couldn’t give it to him.”

“Mal and Benjamin,” the king deduced, requiring no further explanation. “You didn’t like them?”

“They couldn’t- they didn’t need me,” Chad gasped, and it hurt to say aloud. “They wanted Jay, they _got_ Jay-”

“Oh, sweetheart.” The king gave up on the subtle approach and pulled Chad close, tucking his head against the king’s shoulder so he could hide away from the world for a moment. “I know it hurts, but you need to talk to them. Clearly, some kind of miscommunication occurred-”

“Dad, I-” Chad flinched, clutching onto the man’s shirt the way he wanted to when he was a child but never could, because there were always guards with stern faces and servants with pitying stares and Chad just wanted a family, that didn’t seem like a lot to ask for. “It’s over. It’s done.”

He’d already taken the ring off and that had nearly torn him apart. He had to save what little was left for Bella. 

“Okay,” his father said, and it didn’t seem like an agreement so much as a soothing affirmation. Whatever it was, it worked as intended, because Chad felt his body relax as much as it was able to. “Why don’t you sleep on it for now? You’ve been working for too long.”

“I-” Chad looked down at his notes, the words seeming to blur together. “But-”

“I’m sure Bella would like to see you,” his dad continued. “You could sleep with her tonight.”

It was a tantalizing prospect, and after the trials of that afternoon, one Chad couldn’t bear to fight.

“Okay,” Chad whispered, unable to miss the way the king’s shoulders slumped in relief. “I’ll… okay.”

“Okay,” his dad repeated, and then they were walking out of the workshop side-by-side, the various researchers going about their work or watching with pitying gazes or ignoring them completely, who knew.

Certainly, not Chad.

He didn’t know much of anything. 

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad’s father made him stop long enough to wash his face, to change out of his rumpled suit and into some more comfortable lounging clothes. Bella was firmly knocked out by the time Chad curled up beside her on the large bed, but she stirred, just enough to angle towards him before she surrendered to an innocent sleep again, clutching the stuffed falcon mascot for Jay’s Tourney team close to her chest. 

Chad wasn’t sure he would ever be able to find rest again, had contented himself with watching his daughter in the dim glow of her nightlights, but he must have been more exhausted than he realized because he fell asleep between one blink and the next.

He was stirred awake later by a gentle hand on his shoulder, but when Chad blinked his eyes open Bella was still asleep, and her clock read _3:45 AM_. 

He didn’t- why would-?

He looked up to see the apologetic features of Captain Anozie, who silently waved him out of the room. At a loss, Chad followed, working through a yawn and running a hand through his curls to get some semblance of order.

“Is it the others?” Chad asked, thinking of the phone he had turned off once he’d gotten to Sardinia, the portals he’d blocked. “Did they come?”

“No,” Captain Anozie said, guiding him towards the formal reception lounge, which was only used when entertaining other royalty. “Not them.”

“Then who?” Chad asked, but by then Captain Anozie was already ushering him inside, motioning for the guards to close the doors behind them. 

Chad was too tired to be anxious, at least that was what he’d thought before he caught sight of Duke Adam having a standoff with his father, Chad’s grandfather lingering off to the side with his hands neatly tucked behind his back, looking awfully composed for a man that was clad in house slippers and a dressing robe.

“He’s here,” Chad’s father said, similarly attired as he faced Ben’s father. “Now what’s this all about, Adam?”

“I think you know exactly what this is about,” the former king of Auradon said, his tone clipped. “And if you don’t, your son certainly does.”

Chad tensed, but he was too emotionally exhausted to start panicking. He fell into negotiation mode out of habit, slipping into a cool disposition of disinterest while he settled on the couch opposite of Duke Adam, his heart thundering in his chest.

“Stop speaking in riddles,” Chad’s father snapped, arms folded across his chest. “The kids had a fight, but all relationships get strained at some point. If you just gave them time to work it out-”

“I’m not here about that,” the duke interrupted, his gaze fixed on Chad. “I’m here about Bella.”

“Bella?” Chad’s father echoed, seeming totally lost. In Chad’s peripherals, his grandfather tensed. “You came here at _four_ in the morning-”

“Ben’s her other parent,” Duke Adam interrupted, eyes narrowed. “That was what Chadwick’s been keeping a secret all these years. He purposefully withheld the fact that Auradon had an heir-”

“ _Central_ Auradon,” Chad’s grandfather cut in, his voice cool. “As well as Sardinia. I don’t know why you bothered coming here, Adam. The girl was given to Chad by Celestial Blessing – his custody supersedes your son’s no matter how few children he is capable of siring.”

“This isn’t a joke,” Duke Adam snapped, his hands curling hard into the material of his pants. “The fate of my line is in that little girl-”

“Which is hardly Chad’s fault,” Chad’s father said, still confused, but managing to settle back into his anger. “And it certainly isn’t an issue. Once Chad and the others get over this bump in the road-”

“He formally ended his engagement to Jadir,” Duke Adam said through clenched teeth, his jaw twitching. “You did this on purpose, out of spite.”

“I did not,” Chad said calmly, even though he wanted to scream, wanted to shout. “I can’t be with your son-”

“ _Bullshit_ ,” the duke hissed, with such venom it made Chad rock back in his seat. “You had no trouble being with him before he knew Bella was his daughter.”

“And that is where our opinion differs,” Chad said coolly, channeling the bitter winds of the Outerlands. “I had plenty of trouble.” The words seemed to take the other four men by surprise, even his father, who Chad had already briefed on this. “I tried,” Chad said, because that much was obvious. “I tried for Jay, but I couldn’t do it in the end.” He took a slow breath, then another as the words seemed to settle on Duke Adam. “Bella can be both heir to Auradon and Sardinia,” Chad said, forcing himself to be neutral, calm. “But I will raise her here, with her family.”

“You would keep my granddaughter from me?” Duke Adam snarled.

Chad’s grandfather cleared his throat. “With that attitude, it’s no small wonder, really.”

“Don’t play coy,” the Duke snapped. “I didn’t come here to negotiate-”

“She was a _Celestial Blessing_ , Adam,” Chad’s father pressed. “She was a gift – you can’t negotiate custody of a gift from the fates themselves!”

“Was she?” Duke Adam growled, rising to his feet with a distinct menace. “Until this point we have kept the nature of Chad’s quest classified out of respect, but as the former King of Auradon, I have the right to be provided an explanation, _so_.” He turned the full weight of his dissatisfaction onto Chad. “You can do that now, or you can wait for the paperwork to go through the proper channels and explain yourself in front of the entire Auradon Council!”

It was the first moment that Chad felt himself losing control of the situation, the first point where panic started gripping into his chest like a tangible thing, ripping through his internal organs.

“That paperwork would never go through,” Chad’s grandfather snapped. “This is a bluff, and a poor one at that. You would violate the unspoken accords we have with the magic beings that helped shape this land-”

“Unspoken accords have no legal standing,” Chad said, feeling numb. He reviewed the facts, balanced them against his vast knowledge of the Auradon Legal system, and knew the result would end in Duke Adam’s favor. “He’s right.”

“Bullshit, he’s right,” Chad’s father growled. “The entire council would have to approve it- you couldn’t have _one vote_ against it for it to pass-”

“He doesn’t need a majority,” Chad whispered. “He doesn’t need council approval at all if it pertains to Ben.”

That was one of his few rights as king, the ones that superseded all others. 

“ _Exactly_ ,” Duke Adam drawled, looking victorious. “It is only a matter of when, really, and who you want in the audience. So, what is it going to be?”

“This is bullying, Adam,” Chad’s father hissed.

“This is family,” Duke Adam countered. “Are you telling me you wouldn’t fight for your family if it came down to it? Now.” The Duke turned his attention back to Chad, settling down on the couch with an ominous look. “What was your quest?”

For a painful moment, Chad said nothing, struggling to find the right words. He’d had nightmares of this scenario, fever dreams that Fairy Godmother had assured would never come to pass. He found himself wanting to call her, wanting to activate his emergency beacon so she could come here and plead on his behalf – but he’d already taken up so much of Fairy Godmother’s life. She had fought for him, sacrificed years where she could have been with her daughter – all to clean up Chad’s messes.

He was an adult, now. He needed to act like one.

“Chad,” Duke Adam said, his eyes narrowed. “What was your quest?”

“I was pregnant,” Chad said, and the words came far easier than he had expected them to, his tone dead and resigned and so very tired.

The other four froze, Captain Anozie’s features furrowing in concern, but then Duke Adam was clearing his throat.

“This is serious, Chadwick,” he snapped. “What-”

“ _I was pregnant_ ,” Chad pressed, squeezing his eyes shut to fight off the incoming wave of emotion. “I- Ben got me pregnant in Neverland, because of his blood and my blood and the fucking- _plantlife_ -” Chad left out Jay, because there had already been so much damage. “I went to the Outerlands to have the baby. To have Bella.”

There was a brilliant moment of profound silence, the others struggling to process Chad’s abbreviated explanation.

Of course it was Duke Adam that recovered first. “So she wasn’t a Celestial Blessing at all,” he snapped. “You lied.”

“Do not breeze over the part where your _sixteen-year-old son_ – the king of Auradon – got _my_ son pregnant!” Chad’s father snarled. “And you have the audacity to storm in here-”

“It doesn’t matter!” Duke Adam shot back. “If she wasn’t a blessing-”

“Custody still goes to the mother,” Chad’s grandfather said, his voice surprisingly calm for discovering his grandson was an abomination. “In this instance, that’s Chad.”

“Unless it endangers the governing line of Auradon,” Duke Adam declared, looking semi-victorious. “Now-” he reached into a briefcase that had been settled near his feet and pulled out an official looking document, passing it over to Chad’s side of the coffee table with an expensive looking pen. “Signing this document would grant Ben full custody of Bella-”

“You’re out of your mind,” Chad’s father hissed. “If you think-”

“You can sign it, right now,” the duke interrupted, his gaze solely on Chad. “And we can leave all this unpleasantness behind us, or I can prosecute every one of those magic users that willingly hid the truth for endangerment to the Auradon Crown. For intention to deaden our line-”

“I didn’t know,” Chad pressed, his throat feeling thick and painful. “I didn’t know Ben could only impregnate once.”

“It doesn’t matter what you _did not know_ ,” the duke spat. “What matters is that you can sign this document and none of your magic compatriots – Fairy Godmother, Merlin – whoever _else_ visited you in the Outerlands-”

“No one would let you arrest Fairy Godmother,” Chad’s grandfather said. “Or Merlin. Are you even listening to yourself? The kingdoms would riot.”

“No one is above the law,” Duke Adam intoned, his words resolute. “They need to see that. Sure, their arrests might set back mystical relations for a few decades, make the public’s opinion sway to untrustworthy again- or maybe we’ll just reinstate the magic ban altogether. After all, this wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t have blessed blood-”

“Or if your son was _normal_?” Chad’s father hissed. “All this fighting is because of your curse, Adam. Chad had nothing to do with that. _Sardinia_ had nothing to do with that! If you hadn’t gotten cursed, maybe you could have more than one child, but as it is, maybe that’s for the best!”

“ _Maybe_.” Duke Adam’s jaw clenched tight. “But that is irrelevant now.” He turned his resolute gaze back towards Chad. “Sign the document, and I’ll give you a contract that clears their charges. No arrests, no… unpleasantness.” His eyes drifted over Chad in mild derision. “Your terrible secret will remain just that.”

“That _secret_ got you a granddaughter,” Chad’s father snapped. “A beautiful, boisterous, strong-”

“I’ve heard tales of young Bella,” the Duke said, another strike, because he’d never even met her, not really. “And if she has thrived here, she can only do better in Auradon.”

“This is an act of war, Adam.”

“Don’t be foolish, Christopher,” the Duke said, and for once, Chad saw a flash of exhaustion that might reveal the weary parent underneath. “You can’t go to war with Auradon. You can’t _pull out_ of Auradon because your son broke the law.”

“ _Your law_.”

“Any other child, and it wouldn’t matter,” the Duke said. “He could have had the decency to be knocked up by Jadir, but instead he chose my son-”

“I didn’t-” Chad flinched. “I didn’t _choose_.”

“Oh?” the Duke said, arching a brow. “Did you ask him to stop? Ben’s a good boy, he would have- if you’d asked-”

“I- no,” Chad said, hating the way that his father- that his grandfather and Captain Anozie’s expressions feel. “I didn’t- I didn’t tell him to stop because I knew he couldn’t.”

Duke Adam froze, jolted into a bear sort of neutrality. “What do you mean?”

“You fucking _know_ what I meant,” Chad snapped, a stubborn heat building behind his eyes. “It was the same thing that happened when Ben broke my arm.”

“Ben didn’t break your arm,” the Duke was quick to explain. “You fell-”

“Because Ben _shoved me_!” Chad burst, furious and angry and awkward, like he was seven all over again. “I know it wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t control it then, just like he couldn’t control it in Neverland, that didn’t- I wouldn’t have- he had _Mal_.”

For a moment, none of them said anything, all of them weighed down by the casual cruelties offered to them by existence. There was no intentional harm with it, it was what it was, it just- it hurt.

For the first time since the meeting started, Captain Anozie spoke up. “This is a complicated situation, gentlemen,” he said, his tone as firm and soothing as always. “Perhaps if we just took a step back – brought King Benjamin in to discuss things-”

“ _No_ ,” Duke Adam said, jerking his head in a rough motion, as though bringing himself back to reality. “No, we’ve waited too long for a grandchild – one we’ve had all along. Sign the form or I’m pressing charges.”

“This is blackmail,” Chad’s grandfather pointed out.

“It’s a negotiation,” Duke Adam countered. “And it’s a limited time offer.”

“We could raise objections,” Chad’s father said. “If Ben can still be consumed by his beastial urges, what’s to say he won’t harm Bella?”

Duke Adam reared back as though he had been slapped. “He wouldn’t- Ben hasn’t had a relapse in years. He is perfectly in control of himself, and he will be a brilliant father. Now-” His gaze turned to Chad. “ _Sign_. Or I will call into the Inspectors’ Office so they can get started on those arrest warrants.”

“Don’t, Chadwick,” Chad’s grandfather ordered. “He doesn’t have the legal authority to do so. Only Benjamin-”

“Matters in which my son is directly involved are deferred to _me_ for judgement,” Duke Adam said. “And as such-”

“That’s a blatant abuse of power-”

“That’s _Auradon_ -”

“The contract,” Chad said, feeling broken and lost. “…where is it?”

There was a pause while Duke Adam visibly switched gears, and then he was moving, digging through his briefcase until he revealed the document that would protect his family’s wellbeing. Well, _part_ of his family.

“I’m calling Fairy Godmother,” Chad’s father declared, rising in a furious huff. “If you’re threatening her, she deserves to know about it.”

“She won’t be able to do anything,” Chad droned as he read over the paperwork. 

His years of law school made him familiar with the wording, and after double verifying that it did exactly what Duke Adam said it would do, Chad sighed, writing in a quick addendum that protected any magical people not explicitly listed in case Duke Adam felt like using them as bargaining chips one day too. And then, after a beat, adding in a few more clauses that would never likely be fulfilled, though his attention to detail overrode his current anxiety, at least until the ink had dried. 

“Okay,” Chad said when he was satisfied. He put down the contract and started reading over Duke Adam’s custody paperwork, forcing a cool sort of detachment while the rest of him wanted to scream, wanted to shout and break and kill. 

He really was an ugly thing.

He paused halfway through to accept a phone from his father, and spent a few minutes listening while Fairy Godmother attempted to talk him down.

“ _You don’t have to do this, sweetie_ ,” she pressed. “ _Merlin, Genie, and I – we’ve all lived long lives. We can take some time in prison, especially for something we believe in._ ”

“Not for me,” Chad whispered, his throat feeling thick. “Never for me.”

He hung up before he could do something stupid, like listen to her.

“I want visiting rights for my dad,” Chad said, because his visiting rights where under so many restrictions it almost made Chad want to cry. “And my grandfather and Captain Anozie. Fairy Godmother and Jane-”

“As long as it’s not you, it doesn’t matter,” Duke Adam said, like he was afraid Chad would poison Bella with his existence.

Well, maybe he would.

“This is deliberately cruel, Adam,” Chad’s grandfather said, the grip he had on his cane shaking despite his otherwise cool countenance.

“Bella can only have one father, Duke Francis,” Duke Adam said. “And that is going to be Ben, not Chad.”

“Okay,” Chad said, steadying his hand on the pen, reminding himself that Duke Adam wasn’t doing this to be mean, he wasn’t doing this to be evil. He was doing this for his family, and Chad was in the way of that.

He always seemed to be in the way.

He wrote his addendums, had Duke Adam sign his approval before he finally put his pen on the signature line and signed his life away. 

When it was over, Chad’s father was cradled against Captain Anozie’s side, important guests be damned, and the room was filled with a palpable sort of emptiness.

Duke Adam stared down at the paper with a numb sort of wonder, like he hadn’t actually expected Chad to ever sign it.

Of fuck- maybe he shouldn’t have. He _shouldn’t have_ because a good father wouldn’t bargain his kid’s life for a few family’ members’ futures, even if he knew she was going to be taken care of. Knew she would be loved and cherished and appreciated because Ben might be a beast sometimes but Ben was _good_ , and Bella was finally going to get a mom and she’d have Jay-

Chad started sobbing – quiet, painful things as he hunched in on himself, wrapping his arms around his chest as he tried to hold himself together.

He was a terrible father. It was likely a good thing Bella was being taken away; he would have ruined her eventually. He always did.

“I’m um- going to go get her now,” Duke Adam said, sounding a bit shaken.

“H-Her falcon,” Chad managed through the mess of his tears. “You have to- she can’t s-sleep without it. And her music box-”

“I’ll help him,” Captain Anozie offered, trading the king off to Chad’s grandfather, who watched the procession with sad eyes. “I’ll make sure he has everything she needs, your highness.”

“T-Thank you,” Chad whispered, one hand clawing at his chest. “Thank you, captain. I-”

“We should get going,” Duke Adam said, and maybe it was the greatest mercy of all when he left Chad alone to wallow in his misery, because that was the way of Sardinian royalty. They put on a good show until the important women in their life were ruthlessly ripped away from them, and then they just sort of unsuccessfully attempted to pick up the pieces.

Like father, like son.

Hopefully, Bella would be free of that curse.

-:-:-:-:-:-

Chad didn’t know how long he sat there, ruminating in his own unhappiness. At some point, Chad’s father had settled down next to him, had pulled him into a tight hug while his grandfather disappeared – likely to do paperwork.

He was a smart man; he knew Chad wouldn’t be pulling his weight in regards to Sardinian politics anytime soon.

“I…” Chad said, his fingers flexing helplessly against the soft material of his pants. “I can’t stay here.”

Not now, not with the memory of Bella haunting him, not when everyone looked to him with such hope.

“Okay,” Chad’s father said, because few others would understand Chad’s predicament better than him. “Okay, I can take care of things here, but you have to tell me where you’re going.”

“ _Dad_.” It seemed unfair to ask Chad for that much, because he had no idea where he could go in the first place.

“That’s the deal,” his father said, tone unyielding. “You can go- take the time you need, but you have to tell me where you’re going. You have to check in from time to time.”

Because it was Chad – the new, depressed version of him – he had no plan. He’d considered returning to the Outerlands to enforce his isolation, but his father wouldn’t accept that right now. Chad wasn’t going to lie to him, not when he was being so calm in the wake of learning about Chad’s pregnancy, so Chad was forced to think over his options with as critical a detachment as his grief would allow.

Eventually, he came up with one option.

“Uma,” he said, rubbing at his cheeks. “I’ll go to Uma.”

“Okay,” his father said, tone painfully neutral. “Let’s pack you a bag.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for the feedback!!! Just like, bucketfuls of thanks. I can’t express how much I appreciate your support, which I will repay with just- heaps and heaps of angst. You’re welcome? Don’t worry, it’ll be okay in the end :)  
> Story notes: 
> 
> The way I see it, Auradon sports have their own seasons. So I have Tourney taking place in the fall/winter, sort of like American Football, and Swords and Shields being the predominant sport in the spring/summer, like I guess basketball is, maybe. Look, I don’t know sports.
> 
> Fun fact – this chapter made me cry while I wrote it. No lies. 
> 
> According to the wiki, the Sherewood Forest team has a falcon for the mascot, so I decided the professional Sherewood forest team did the same.
> 
> To be clear, this is only a temporary unhappiness. You know me, it’s gotta be happy in the end, so we will get there, I promise.
> 
> Until next time


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